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Cavanagh,  William  Henry,  b 

1858. 
The  word  protestant  in 

literature,  history,  and 


'    JUL  21  1955 
THE  WORD^*^|MtCAL  8^ 

PROTESTANT 


IN 


Literature,  History  and  Legislation 


AND    ITS 


INTRODUCTION   INTO    THE    AMERICAN   CHURCH 


BY  THE 


REV.  WILLIAM  HENRY  CAVANAGH 


PHILADELPHIA 
GEORGE   W.    JACOBS  k   CO. 

105  South  15TH  Street 
1899 


Copyright,  1899, 
By  GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  &  C(X 


PREFACE. 

The  object  of  the  following  pages  is  to  trace  the 
evolution  and  development  of  an  idea,  or  set  of  ideas, 
which  have  been  generally  denominated  by  the  title 
Protestant,  and  which,  in  the  light  of  present  knowl- 
edge, must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  curiosities 
of  history.  We  have  felt  obliged,  in  Chapter  II. 
especially,  to  touch  upon  a  multitude  of  facts,  which 
are  to  be  viewed  as  perspective  only  to  the  great 
drama  of  Reformation,  in  order  to  show  that  ecclesi- 
astics of  the  Middle  Ages  were  not  wholly  void  of 
conscience,  and  not  nearly  so  ignorant  or  degraded 
as  we  have  been  ordinarily  taught  to  regard  them. 
The  Church  and  Protestantism  have  nothing  in  com- 
mon, which  we  have  tried  to  maintain  by  authorities 
throughout,  and  where  inaccuracies  or  inconsistencies 
exist,  according  to  our  judgment,  we  have  not  hesi- 
tated to  point  them  out.  Protestantism  rejects  the 
idea  that  our  Divine  Lord  founded  a  visible  church, 
in  order  to  support  the  basic  theory  of  immediate 
contact,  which  sees  no  necessity  for  Ministry  or  Sacra- 
ments, other  than  that  which  the  circumstances 
demand.     We  have  endeavored  to  show   that   the 


PREFACE. 


animating  principle  of  the  Anglican  reformation  was 
"  ancient  custom,"  and  where  Protestantism  has  put 
forth  claims  to  originality  and  uniqueness,  it  will  be 
found,  by  diligent  inquiry,  that  exact  parallels  exist 
in  long  since  forgotten  theories  put  forth  in  the  early 
centuries.  My  authorities  are  given  either  in  the 
context  or  in  foot-notes  throughout  the  book.  I 
desire  to  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  the  author 
of  an  article  in  the  Church  Quarterly  Review  of 
January,  1879;  ^^  J^^^^g^  Homersham  Cox's  essay, 
*'  Is  the  Church  of  England  Protestant?",  to  Rev.  F. 
C.  Ewer's  ''  Catholicity  and  Protestantism,"  and  the 
Church  Historical  Society's  publications. 

Germantown,  Philadelphia, 
March,  1899. 


INTRODUCTION 


The  word  Protestant,  since  the  year  1529,  has  been 
a  thing  to  conjure  with.  It  was  first  used  as  a  term 
of  contempt,  but  as  time  went  on  it  lost  its  original 
pungency,  and  Dissenters  gradually  adopted  it  to 
express  resentment  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  It 
never  found  its  way,  however,  into  any  doctrine  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  its  introduction  into  the 
American  Church,  can  only  be  accounted  for  (which 
will  hereafter  appear)  on  the  probable  theory  of 
promoting  unity  in  a  divided  Christendom.  The 
proposal  then  to  strike  out  the  title  "  Protestant 
Episcopal,"  which  is  the  official  designation  of  the 
Church,  has  created  no  little  controversy  between 
promoters  and  obstructionists  to  the  well-being  of 
the  Church.  That  the  Church  has  tenaciously  clung 
to  Episcopacy  through  all  the  periods  of  her  troubled 
history  no  one  can  doubt,  but  that  Protestant  is 
part  of  her  ancient  heritage,  we  are  persuaded,  after 
examination,  all  will  emphatically  resent.  The  pres- 
ent inquiry  will  be  an  attempt  to  show  what  Protes- 
tant means,  and  to  trace  it  briefly  through  the  various 
phases  of  Continental  and  Anglican  history,  to  prove 

that  the  Church  and  Protestantism  have  never  had 

iii 


iv  INTRODUCTION. 

anything  in  common,  and  therefore  the  introduction 
of  the  term  into  the  Church,  in  1780,  must  have  been 
suggested  by  personal  or  political  motives.  We 
have  heard  it  advocated  that  Protestant  means  re- 
formed, and  that  the  Church  of  England,  from  which 
we  derived  our  ministry,  is  Protestant,  according  to 
the  order  and  discipline  of  the  primitive  Church.  If 
Protestantism  had  the  support  of  antiquity,  it  would 
have  been  a  veritable  triumph  long  ago,  but  the 
theory  which  takes  its  stand  upon  the  infallibility  of 
private  judgment  is  doomed  to  failure,  because  it  has 
no  warrant  in  Scripture  canon,  which  says:  "Thus 
saith  the  Lord."  Protestantism,  in  its  essence,  is 
democratic,  which  maintains  that  the  ultimate  source 
of  authority  is  vested  in  the  people,  every  man  being 
a  law  unto  himself,  to  preach  the  Word,  and  adminis- 
ter the  Sacraments,  which  insinuatingly  undermines 
the  priesthood  of  Christ,  and  which  eventually  means 
the  total  destruction  of  Christianity.  The  word 
Protestant  has  been  associated  with  anarchy,  and 
various  forms  of  error,  from  the  beginning,  and,  in 
later  years,  it  has  been  claimed  as  the  peculiar 
heritage  of  the  propagandists  of  free  thought.  The 
word,  in  a  purely  literary  sense,  is  negative,  and  as  a 
title  to  a  corporate  body,  professing  veneration  for 
Catholic  principles  and  Apostolic  practice,  stands 
for  an  idea  that  it  cannot  possibly  represent. 

Back  of  the  whole  question  lies  the  historic  argu- 


INTRODUCTION. 


ment,  and  it  is  worse  than  useless  to  attempt  to 
obliterate,  or  even  try  to  silence,  the  history  of  the 
past,  by  discrediting  and  discouraging  all  argument  in 
favor  of  historical  continuity  ;  as  the  love  of  study 
and  research  are  gradually  awakening  the  thinking 
masses  to  a  fuller  realization  of  the  fact,  that  a  church 
without  antecedents  is  a  church  without  authority, 
and  hence  it  follows  that  the  society  which  can  trace 
its  lineage  back  to  the  origin  of  all  ministry,  can  pre- 
eminently claim  to  speak  with  Divine  authority  as 
the  sme  qua  non  of  orthodox  Christianity.  The  name 
Protestant  was  introduced  into  the  American  Church, 
which  was  formerly  the  **  Church  of  England  in  the 
Colonies,"  in  1780,  without  any  discussion  or  legisla- 
tion whatever,  and  now  for  the  sake  of  truth,  it 
would  seem  most  reasonable  to  fall  back  upon  the 
title  "  The  Church  **  of  the  <:ountry,  for  which  we 
have  both  Scripture,  and  historic  precedent.  The 
present  title  is  not  only  cumbersome,  but  misleading, 
and  we  have  no  just  cause,  as  honest  defenders  of 
Divine  truth,  to  label  our  doctrines  with  the  brand  of 
error.  If  some  of  our  quotations  which  are  immedi- 
ately to  follow  seem  to  be  superfluous,  it  is  because 
we  wish  to  be  fair  in  presenting  the  whole  case,  in 
order  to  show  that  Protestant,  in  name  and  thing,  has 
never  had  more  than  a  tacit  acceptance,  and  that  the 
protesters  at  Spires  never  thought  of  basing  their 
insubordinate  action  on  any  precedent  whatever. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  WORD  PROTESTANT — IN   LITERATURE. 

PAGK 

The  introduction  and  analysis  of  the  term,  from  which  Protes- 
tant takes  its  name,  showing  the  scriptural,  classic,  mediaeval 
and  modem  uses  of  the  word  Protest i 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  WORD   PROTESTANT — LIGHT   IN    DARKNESS. 

A  brief  statement  of  the  intellectual  and  religious  state  of 
Europe  previous  to  the  Reformation 1 1 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  WORD   PROTESTANT — THE   GERMAN    REVOLT. 

The  Continental  revolt  from  Romanism,  with  some  account  of 
the  incidents  leading  to  the  introduction  of  the  term  Protes- 
tant, and  its  appropriation  by  dissenters  in  general  to  ex- 
press their  aversion  to  the  Mediaeval  Church 26 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  WORD  PROTESTANT — REJECTED  IN   ENGLAND. 

The  independent  character  of  the  AngHcan  Reformation,  and 
the  efforts  of  her  legislators  to  restore  the  Church  to  her 
primitive  catholicity. — The  persistent  effort  of  foreign  Pro- 
testants to  influence  the  advisers  of  Edward  VI.  and  its 
immediate  and  lasting  effects  in  causing  division  and  dis- 
cord.— The  jealous  care  of  the  Church  to  guard  the  spiritual 
succession,  and  the  sacraments. — The  introduction  of  the 
Protestant  idea  after  1689 59 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  WORD   PROTESTANT — ADOPTED   IN   AMERICA. 

The  introduction  of  the  title  "  Protestant  "  into  the  American 
Church  by  the  Rev.  James  Jones  Wilmer,  and  its  inappro- 
priateness  and  inexactness  to  define  that  branch  of  the 
ancient,  historic  Church,  which  had  openly  declared  her  op- 
position to  the  principles  of  Continental  Protestantism 129 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

IN  LITERATURE. 

The  Hebrew  word  n^y,  protest,  is  an  active  verb, 
the  hiphil  of  which  is  causative  in  relationship,  and 
to  the  Semitic  mind  bore  the  declarative  signification. 

I.  It  means,  to  take  as  a  witness,  to  call  any  one 
to  witness,  to  invoke,  Deut.  iv.  26  and  xxx.  19. 

n.  To  testify,  to  bear  witness,  Absol.  Amos  iii. 
13  ;  against  any  one,  i  Kings  xxi.  10;  for  any  one, 
i.  e.  in  his  favor.  Job  xxix.  1 1  ;  hence  (a)  to  obtest, 
i.  e.  to  afifirm  solemnly,  to  afifirm,  calling  God  to  wit- 
ness. Gen.  xliii.  3.  The  man  did  solemnly  affirm 
unto  us,  Deut.  viii.  9  ;  {5)  to  admonish  solemnly,  fol- 
lowed by  an  Ace.  Lam.  ii.  13  ;  Ps.  1.  7 ;  Jer.  vi.  10; 
especially  to  chastise,  to  chide,  Neh.  xiii.  15  ;  (c)  sol- 
emnly to  enjoin ;  hence  used  of  any  law  given  by 
God,  2  Kings,  xvii.  15;  his  precepts  which  he  had 
given  them,  Neh.  ix.  34.^ 

I   Samuel  viii.  9.   Howbeit  yet  protest  solemnly 

unto  them,  and  shew  them,  etc. 

1  Gesenius's  Hebrew  Grammar  and  Lexicon. 

I 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


I  Kings  ii.  42.  Protested  unto  thee,  saying,  etc. 

Jer.  xi.  7.  For  I  earnestly  protested  unto  your 
fathers  .  .  .  rising  early  and  protesting. 

Zech.  iii.  3.  And  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  protested 
unto  Joshua. 

The  use  of  the  word  viy,  to  protest,  in  the  New 
Testament  occurs  in  i  Cor.  xv.  31  and  is  translated 
into  the  corresponding  Latin  propter.  The  particle 
v^  was  common  to  the  Attic  Greek  and  is  as  old  as 
Pindar,  521-441  B.C.,  Herodotus,  448-408  B.C.,  or 
the  Tragedians.  It  was  commonly  employed  in 
affirmations  and  oaths,  and  joined  to  an  accusative 
of  the  persons  (for  the  most  part  a  Divinity)  or  the 
thing  affirmed  or  sworn  by.  St.  Paul  was  familiar 
with  Greek  literature,  and  his  use  of  the  word  in  this 
instance  was  diplomatic,  to  say  the  least.  The 
Corinthians  seemed  to  have  interpreted  his  refer- 
ences to  the  Resurrection  by  the  prevailing  Platon- 
ism,  which  limited  all  happiness  to  a  merely  tem- 
porary existence,  and  St.  Paul  wrote  that  he  protested 
or  swore  by  their  rejoicing  over  their  conversion, 
which  he  equally  experienced,  but  his  glorying  went 
deeper,  and  contemplated  an  eternity,  to  which  he 
could  attest  by  his  daily  dying,  suffering,  and  sacri- 
fice. 

The  Latin  translators  of  the  New  Testament  ren- 
dered vri  into  propter,  a  contraction  of  propiter,  which 
itself  comes  from  prope,  meaning  near,  hard  by,  at 


IN  LITERATURE. 


hand.  The  translators  gave  the  figurative  meaning 
to  the  word,  in  which  sense  it  was  classical  and  com- 
mon as  the  following  examples  will  show. 

In  stating  a  cause.  I.,  on  account  of,  by  reason  of, 
from,  for,  because  of.  Cicero's  (43  B.  C.)  Paradoxa 
5,  I,  parere  legibus  propter  metum,  or  Caesar's 
(44  B.  C.)  Bellum  Gallicum  ;  propter  frigora  frumenta 
in  agris  matura  non  erant.  Laberius  (60  B.  C.)  ap. 
Non.  53,  26,  propter  viam  fit  sacrificium  quod  est 
proficiscendi  gratia,  to  sacrifice  on  account  of  a 
journey.  Palladius  (210  A.  D.),  propter  injuriam,  to 
avoid  injury.  II.  By  means  of,  through,  (a)  referring 
to  persons  in  whom  lies  the  cause  of  a  thing;  Cic- 
ero's oratio  pro  Milone,  propter  quos  vivit ;  through 
whom  he  lives,  to  whom  he  owes  life,  {b)  referring  to 
things  by  means  of  which  anything  takes  place, 
Varro  (26  B.  C.)  De  Re  Rustica  3,  2,  11,  quid  enim 
refert,  utrum  propter  ores,  an  propter  aves  frustus 
capias?  Virgilius(i7  B.  C.)^.  12,  177,  quam  propter 
tantos  potui  perferre  labores. 

Nri  is  also  used  in  the  Septuagint,  Gen.  xlii.  15,  16 
(by  the  life  of  Pharaoh),  which  is  rendered  by  per  in 
the  Latin  Vulgate.  Granting  for  the  sake  of  argu- 
ment that  the  word  ''  protest  "  on  the  lips  of  Hebrew 
Prophets,  or  the  Apostle  St.  Paul,  is  to  be  inter- 
preted in  an  affirmative  sense,  it  would  have  no 
bearing  upon  the  modern  philology  of  the  word,  as 
Hebrew  and  Greek  v/ere  comparatively  unknown  to 


4  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

theologians,  much  less  the  laity  of  Germany,  when 
the  negative  substantive  came  into  existence. 

The  word  Protestor  is  post  Augustan  (430  A.  D.), 
and  as  used  by  the  ecclesiastical  historian  Cassiodorus 
(562  A.  D.)  5,  42,  and  others,  is  derived  from  Pro, 
no,  and  testor ;  to  declare  publicly,  to  bear  witness, 
testify,  protest. 

{a)  With  simple  accusative,  Macrobius  (395  A.  D.), 
Saturnalia  1-17  fin.  Floris  species  florem  rerum 
protestantur. 

{b)  With  relative  clause,  Fronto  (160  A.  D.),  de 
Nep.  quae  mihi  conscius  sum  protestabor. 

{c)  With  Abl.  Appuleius  (163  A.  D.)  Metamor- 
phoses,  10,  Mulier  magno  fidem  praesidis  protestata 

clamore. 

{d)  With  objective  clause,  Ulpianus(230  A.D.),  Dig. 
11,7,  I4quippe  protestantur,  pietatis  gratia  idse  faceer. 

The  following  definitions  are  quoted  literally  from 
Du  Cange's  Glossarium  ad  Scriptores  Mediae  et 
Infimae  Latinitatis.^ 

Protesta,  Itaiis  est  contestata  denunciatio,  Gall. 
Protestation.  StatutaVercell.  lib.  4.  fol.  7.  "  Item  quod 
si  aliquis  servitor  fecerit  aliquam  falsam  Protestam, 
vel  aliquod  aliud  falsum  commiserit  in  suo  officio  ser- 
vitorie  exercendo,  suspendatur  per  linguam  cum  uno 
hamo  ferreo  in  publica  concione."    Vide  Protestatio. 

Protestantes  dicti  primum  Lutherani,  cum  ann. 
1  Paris,  1734. 


IN  LITERATURE.  5 

1529.  in  comitiis  Spirensibus  adversus  novum  decre- 
tum,  in  Religionis  negotio,  ab  iis  exhibita  ^st  Pro- 
testatio  ;  quod  nomen  et  Calvini  discipulis  subinde 
inditum  est.  Vide  Sleidani  Comment,  lib.  6.  et 
Hofmanni  Lexicon. 

Protestari,  contestato  denunciare,  testificari, 
Protester.  Litterae  Bonifacii  VIII.  pp.  in  Chr. 
Angl.  Th.  Otterbourne,  p.  92.  *'  Palam  Protestatus 
est,  quod  pro  regno  ipso  tibi  fidelitatem  praestareseu 
facere  aliquatenus  non  debeat,  etc."  Charta  ann.  1304. 
in  Maceriis  Insulae  Barbarae,  tom.  i.  p.  194.  ''  Protes- 
tantestamen  et  dicentes  se  dictum  hommagium  facere 
et  recognitionem  juxta  formam  et  conventionem  con- 
tentam  in  Charta  facta  manu  Raimundi  Meliani 
Notarii,  in  qua  Protestati  fuerunt  fore  salvum  jus 
curiae  et  ipsorum." 

PrOTESTARI,  nude  pro  Attestari.  Bulla  Caeles- 
tini  iii.  pp.  ann.  1191.  inter  Instrum.  tom.  6.  Gall. 
Christ,  novae  Edit.  Col.  49.  ''  Quod  episcoporum  muta- 
tiones,  utilitatis,  vel  necessitatis,  causa,  possint  aucto- 
ritate  apostolica  licite  fieri,  tam  canonum  statuta, 
quam  antiqua  sanctorum  patrum  exempla  mani- 
festius  Protestantur." 

Protestatio,  ut  supra  Protesta.  Statutum 
Comitis  Provinciae  de  officio  tabellionum  ann.  1254. 
Ex.  Cod.  MS.  D.  Brunet,  fol.  60.  ''  De  Protestatione 
qualibet  et  qualibet  exceptione  ponenda  in  Cartula- 
rio,"    I.  den.  detur.  Laur.   Byzyn.  de  Bello    Hussit. 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


apud  Ludewig.  torn.  6.  Reliq.  MSS.  p.  127.  "  Primum 
in  Praga  intimationibus  et  Protestationibus  publicis 
factis,  "  etc.  Chron.  Angl.  Th.  Otterbourne,  p.  185. 
facta  prius  Protestatione,  quod  ad  hoc  concedendum 
Regi  non  tenebantur  ex  stricto  jure,  sed  affectione 
solummodo  sui  Regis. 

Protestum,  vox  negotiatorum,  Gall.  Protet,  Con- 
testata  denunciatio.  Statuta  Genuens.  lib.  4.  cap. 
14,  p.  115.  "  Qui  voluerit  cambia,  seu  tractas  sibi 
factas  solvere  supra  Protestun^,  ad  hoc  ut  retineat 
obligatum  eum,  qui  traxit,  seu  qui  mandavit  pecu- 
nias,  seu  cambium  solvi,  teneatur  in  illis  locis,  in 
quibus  solutiones  cambiorurr  habent  sua  tempora 
praefixa,  facere  declarationem  in  actis  notarii  coram 
testibus  infra  horas  viginti  quatuor,  post  praesenta- 
tionem  litterarum  cambii,  sicuti  acceptat  talem  trac- 
tam  supra  Protestum." 

In  the  year  1749,  Jo.  Matt.  Gesner,  published 
his  Novus  Linguae  Latinae  Thesaurus  at  Leipzig,  from 
which  I  quote  the  following  : — 

Protestor,  ari.  Palam  testari.  Imp.  Justin, 
Instit.  pr.  "  Bellicos  sudores  nostros  tam  Africa,  quam 
aliae  innumerae  provinciae  iterum  ditioni  Romanae 
nostroque  additae  imperio  protestantur."  Conf.  7. 
fin.  de  Institor.  Act.  Quinctil.  Decl.  4  extr.  :  Praedico, 
protestor,  non  ego  parricidium  faciam. 

Du  Cange  as  a  lexicographer,  is  regarded  by  all 
scholars  as  the  best  authority  for  Mediaeval   Latin, 


IN  LITERATURE, 


and  it  will  be  noted  that  in  every  case  he  cites,  Protes- 
tari  has  the  negative  signification,  implying  a  formal 
declaration  against  some  act  or  course  of  action. 

This  disquisition  upon  the  classical  and  ecclesiastical 
uses  of  the  word  Protest,  would  not  be  complete 
without  some  reference  to  the  modern  use  of  the 
word.  I  have  placed  the  word,  used  as  a  verb,  and 
as  a  noun,  in  opposing  columns  to  show  the  meaning 
it  conveyed  to  the  various  authors. 


The  Verb  Protest.* 
French  Protester     Spanish  and 

Pg.  protestar. 
Italian  Protestare.     Latin  pro- 
testari,  protestare,  declare  in 
public,  bear  witnesss. 
I.  Transitive.— I.   To    make   a 
solemn  declaration  or  affirma- 
tion of  ;  bear  witness  or  tes- 
timony to ;  assert ;  asseverate  ; 
declare  ;  as,  to  protest  one's 
innocence — 
Verily,  he  [Dr.  Barnes]  pro- 
tested   openly    at   St.   Mary's 
Spital.    Coverdale  Remains,"  p. 

341. 

To  think  upon  her  woes  I  do 
protest  that  I  have  wept. 
Shak.,  T.  G.  of  V.  iv.,  4, 
149. 
Their  own  guilty  carriage  pro- 
tests they  doe  f  eare. 

Milton,  Ch.-Govt.  i.  5. 


The  Noun  Protest. 
Middle  English,  protest.      Old 
French,  protest. 

French,  protet,  m. 
Dutch, 

German,  I      Fr.  proteste,  fern. 
Swedish,  >  protest. 
Danish,    J 
Spanish,  protesta. 
Portuguese    and    Italian,    pro- 

testo. 
Middle  Latin,  protestum  ;  a  pro- 
test (mostly  in  the  commer- 
cial sense)  ;  from  the  verb. 
I.  The  act  of  protesting,  or 
that  which  is  protested  ;  an  af- 
firmation ;   asseveration ;    pro- 
testation ;   now    restricted   for 
the  most  part  to  a  solemn  or 
formal  declaration  against  some 
act  or  course  of  action,  by  which 
a  person  declares  (and  some- 
times has  his    declaration  re- 


>  The  Century  Dictionary. 


8 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


The  Verb  Protest.— C^«/. 
"I  protest,  Charles,"  cried  my 
wife,  etc. 

Goldsmith,  Vicar,  v. 

2.  To  call  as  a  witness  in  alarm- 
ing or  denying,  or  to  prove 
an  affirmation ;  appeal  to 
(Rare). 

Fiercely  opposed 
My  journey  strange,  with  clam- 
orous uproar. 
Protesting  fate  supreme. 

Milton,  P.  L.  X.  480. 

3.  To  declare  publicly  ;  pub- 
lish ;  make  known. 

Do  me  right,  or  I  will  protest 
your  cowardice,  etc. 

Shak.,  Much  Ado,  v.  i,  49. 
Thou    wouldst    not    willingly 
live  a  protested  coward. 

Beau  &  Fl.,  Little  Fr. 
Lawyer,  i.  i. 

4.  To  promise  solemnly  ;  vow. 
On  Diana's  altar  to  protest  for 

aye  austerity,  etc. 

Shak.,  M.  N.  D.  i.  i,  89. 

5.  To  declare  formally  to  be 
insufficiently  provided  for 
by  deposit  or  payment ;  said 
of  a  note  or  bill  of  ex- 
change, and  also,  figuratively, 
of  personal  credit,  statements, 
etc. 

Turn  country  bankrupt 
In  mine  own  town    upon  the 
market  day 


Thb  Noun  Protest.— C<>«^. 
corded)  that  he  refuses,  or  only 
conditionally  yields,  his  concent 
to  some  act  to  which  he  might 
otherwise  be  assumed  to  have 
yielded  an  unconditional  as- 
sent ;  as,  to  submit  under  pro- 
test ;  a  protest  against  the  action 
of  a  committee. 

Swear  me,  Kate,  like  a  lady  as 
thou  art,  a  good  mouth-filling 
oath,  and  leave  "  in  sooth,"  and 
such  protest  of  pepper-ginger- 
bread, to  velvet  guards. 

Shak.,  I  Hen.  IV.,  iii.  i,  260. 

He  [Spenser]  is  a  standing 
protest  against  the  tyranny  of 
Commonplace. 

Lowell,  Among  my  Books, 
2d  Ser.,  p.  199. 

He  took  away  the  reproach  of 
silent  consent  that  would  other- 
wise have  lain  against  the  indig- 
nant minority,by  uttering,  in  the 
hour  and  place  wherein  these 
outrages  were  done,  the  stern 
protest. 

Emerson,  Theo.  Parker. 

Two  protests  of  peers  against 
the  proceedings  of  the  ministers 
were  expunged  from  the  records 
of  the  House  of  Lords. 

Lecky,Eng.  in  XVIII. 
Cent.  i. 

2.  In  Law  :  {a)  In  a  popular 
sense,  all  the  steps  taken  to  fiy 


IN  LITERATURE. 


The  Verb  Protest.— Ct7«^. 
And  be  protested  for  my  butter 
and  eggs,  etc. 

B.  Jonson,  New  Inn.  i.  i. 
The  bill  lies  for  payment   .    .    . 
and  if  not  taken  up  this  after- 
noon will  be  protested. 

Colman,  The  Spleen. 
(Davies). 
"I  said— I  did  nothing,'  cried 
Lady  Cecilia    ...    An  ap- 
pealing look  to  heaven  was 
however  protested,  etc. 
Miss  Edgeworth,  Helen  vi. 
(Davies). 
The  moral  market  had  the  usual 

chills 
Of  Virtue  suffering  from  pro- 
tested bills.— O.  W.  Holmes, 
The  Banker's  Dinner. 

Synonyms. 

Assert :  Supports  one's  cause  ag- 
gressively, as  assert  yourself  ; 
but  it  seems  to  expect  doubt  or 
contradiction  of  what  one  says. 

Affirm :  Strengthens  a  state- 
ment, but  the  affirmation  is 
wholly  dependent  upon  the 
utterer's  veracity. 

Declare :  Makes  emphatic 
against  contradiction. 

Aver :  Is  positive  and  peremp- 
tory. 

Asseverate :    Is    positive    and 
solemn. 
Protest  differs  from  the  words 


Thh  Noun  Protest. — Cont. 
the  liability  of  a  drawer  or  in- 
dorser  of  commercial  paper 
when  the  paper  is  dishonored. 
(6j  Technically,  the  solemn  dec- 
laration on  the  part  of  the  holder 
of  a  bill  or  note  against  any  loss 
to  be  sustained  by  him  by  rea- 
son of  the  non-acceptance  or 
non-payment,  as  the  case  may 
be,  of  the  bill  or  note  in  question 
and  the  calling  of  a  notary  to 
witness  that  due  steps  have  been 
taken  to  prevent  such  loss 
fc)  The  document  authenticating 
this  act.  (rf)  A  written  declara- 
tion, usually  by  the  master  of  a 
ship,  attested  by  a  justice  of  the 
peace  or  a  consul,  stating  the 
circumstances  under  which  any 
injury  has  happened  to  the  ship 
Q\  cargo,  or  other  circumstances 
calculated  to  affect  the  liability  of 
the  owners,  officers,  crew,  etc. 

Acceptance  supra  protest,  isac- 
ceptance  by  some  third  person, 
after  protest  for  non-acceptance 
by  the  drawee,  with  the  view  of 
saving  the  honor  of  the  drawer 
or  of  some  particular  indorser. 

Acceptor  supra  protest,  a  per- 
son, not  a  party  to  a  bill  of  ex- 
change, vi^hich  has  been  pro- 
tested, who  accepts  it  for  the 
honor  of  the  drawer  or  of  an  in- 
dorser, thereby  agreeing  to  pay 
it,  if  the  drawee  does  not. 


lo 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 


The  Verb  Protest.— C<>«/. 
compared  under  assert  (aver, 
asseverate),  in  being  more  sol- 
emn and  earnest,  and  in  imply- 
ing more  of  previous  contradic- 
tion or  expectation  of  contra- 
diction, like  them,  it  is  used  to 
make  the  statement  seem  cer- 
tainly true. 

II.  Intransitive. — i.  To  bear  tes- 
timony; affirm  with  solem- 
nity ;  make  a  solemn  decla- 
ration of  a  fact  or  an  opin- 
ion ;  asseverate. 

Gen.  xliii.  3. 
The  lady  doth  protest  too  much 
methinks. 

Shak.,  Hamlet,  iii.  2,  240. 


The  Verb  Protest.— 0«A 
2.  To  make  a  solemn  or  formal 
declaration  in  condemnation 
of  an  act  or  measure  proposed 
or  accomplished  ;  often  with 
against. 

I  Saml.  viii.  9. 
When  they  say  the  bishops  did 
protest,  it  was  only  dissenting 
and  that  in  case  of  the  Pope. 
Selden,  Table  Talk,  p.  68. 
Warham,  as  an  old  lawyer,  pro- 
tested in  a  formal  document 
against  all  legislation  which 
might     be   enacted    against 
Eccl.  or  Papal  power. 

Stubbs,  Med.  &  Mod.  Hist. 
P-  279- 


It  is  most  evident  from  the  context,  that  every 
reference  to  the  word  "protest,"  however  obscure  to 
the  uninitiated  and  indifferent  in  weighing  definitions, 
literally  conveys  to  the  judicious  mind,  the  negative 
qualification,  which  involves  the  idea  of  denial. 


CHAPTER  11. 

LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS. 

The  history  of  Protestantism  belongs  to  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  in  order  to  have  some  intelligent 
idea  of  the  religious  conflict,  it  will  be  necessary  for  us 
to  review  very  briefly  the  conditions  which  brought 
about  such  varied  and  unexpected  results.  The  ages 
that  have  usually  been  styled  dark,  to  the  utter 
neglect  of  history,  omit  to  mention  the  obligations 
to  which  the  world  in  general  is  under  to  the  monas- 
tery. From  the  days  of  Anthony,  that  part  of 
the  visible  church,  for  the  most  part  enclosed 
within  stone  walls,  preserved  to  us  the  rudiments 
of  our  modern  learning,  and  especially  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  which  are  now,  and  have  been  since 
printing  made  them  known,  the  glory  of  our  in- 
heritance, the  foundation  of  our  ideals  of  civiliza- 
tion. The  Dark  Ages  produced  as  great  theologians, 
as  great  statesmen,  as  great  lawyers,  as  great 
poets  and  as  great  painters,  as  any  other  period 
since.  Without  our  modern  processes  of  multiplying 
books,  education  was  necessarily  circumscribed ;  the 
multitude  remained  in  ignorance,  and  therefore  super- 
stitious.    With  the  same  human  nature  to  contend 

II 


12  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

with,  the  only  mystery  is — why  Christianity  had 
not  utterly  perished  ?  Surely  as  we  read  the  record 
of  those  dreary  ages,  the  existing  church  must  even 
then  have  had  something  of  the  Divine  about  it,  to 
have  survived  it  all.  The  monasteries  of  the  Middle 
Ages  were  the  magazines  of  literature,  and  the  repos- 
itories of  science.  We  are  indebted  to  the  monks 
for  making  known  to  the  world,  the  lives  and  writ- 
ings of  Alexander,  Caesar,  Homer,  Virgil,  Cicero, 
Tacitus,  Plato,  and  Demosthenes.  We  are  indebted 
to  them  for  the  inception  and  development  of  art, 
for  their  unwearied  industry  in  preserving  to  us  the 
records  of  contemporary  events,  the  writings  of  the 
Ancient  Fathers,  and  above  all  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
by  transcription,  with  their  valuable  commentaries ; 
the  schools  they  founded  over  Western  Europe,  and 
the  millions  of  idle  and  distressed  they  ministered 
to,  speak  volumes  for  their  liberal  and  habitual 
charity.  In  the  sixth  century  the  monks  numbered 
about  3,000,  and  as  time  went  on,  they  grew  in  in- 
fluence and  power,  and  dispersed  themselves  over 
the  whole  -of  northwestern  Europe.  The  golden- 
mouthed  Chrysostom  persuaded  them  that  they 
were  the  "  Elect,"  and  hence  the  *'  vow  of  poverty  " 
soon  became  the  talisman  of  sanctity.  As  men 
inheriting  traditions  of  the  ancient  Coenobites  and 
Anchorites,  voluntarily  choosing  the  life  of  celibacy, 
and  withdrawal   from  all  episcopal    oversight,  it   is 


LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS,  1 3 

quite  easy  to  understand  the  steps  which  led  to  dis- 
ruption and  decay.  The  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century  witnessed  the  introduction  of  a  new  frater- 
nity founded  upon  sterner  principles  than  was  ever 
exacted  before,  the  chief  of  which  was  abject  pov- 
erty. Francis  of  Assisi,  the  founder  of  the  Francis- 
cans, who  was  known  as  the  prince  of  beggars,  would 
not  even  allow  his  companions  the  possession  of  a 
book.  Francis  palmed  off  the  deception  of  the 
Sacred  Stigmata  upon  the  Church,  and  Pope  Ben- 
edict XII.  ordered  a  commemorative  festival  in  honor 
of  the  event,  and  four  years  after  his  death,  which 
occurred  in  1226,  he  was  canonized  by  Gregory  IX. 
Long  before  the  Reformation  the  Roman  calendar 
was  filled  with  suspicious  saints,  and  the  Breviary  was 
crowded  full  of  legends  as  monstrous  as  they  are  ridic- 
ulous to  modern  ears.  The  Franciscan  order  became 
very  popular,  and  like  the  Dominicans,  a  rival  organ- 
ization of  the  same  period,  was  permitted  by  the 
Popes  to  sell  indulgences  for  their  support.  Inno- 
cent III.  thought  they  were  admirably  calculated  to 
meet  the  peculiar  exigencies  of  the  Church,  and  they 
grew  to  such  colossal  proportions  that  they  soon 
dominated  Popes  and  Councils.  They  were  a  distinct 
caste,  and  in  many  ways  antagonistic  to  the  Church. 
The  universities  of  Paris  and  Oxford  at  one  time 
combined  in  their  efforts  to  suppress  them.  Many 
of  the   monks   aspired    to  sainthood  ;  they  starved 


H 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


themselves,  suffered  all  kinds  of  hardships,  flagella- 
tions, shut  themselves  up  in  cells,  in  the  enthusiastic 
expectation  of  divine  light,  or  the  prospect  of  at- 
taining eminent  rank  amongst  the  heroes  of  the 
Church.  Their  whole  system,  like  much  that  is  in 
modern  sectarianism,  was  a  perverted  moral  regime, 
as  they  allowed  fanaticism  to  usurp  supreme  sway 
over  the  human  mind.  They  taught  that  every 
indulgence  was  criminal,  that  every  gratification  of 
the  senses,  however  innocent,  was  injurious  to  the 
soul,  that  the  ties  of  human  affection  weaned  the 
heart  from  God,  that  the  duties  of  social  life  must 
be  abandoned  by  those  who  had  any  regard  for  their 
salvation,  and,  just  in  proportion  as  one  inflicted 
privations  and  heaped  torments  upon  himself,  he 
pleased  his  Creator.  Beggary  was  their  boast,  and 
they  became  a  set  of  peripatetic  ecclesiastics,  who 
imagined  themselves  illuminated  with  an  aureole  of 
sanctity.  Princes  bestowed  privileges  upon  them, 
and  gave  them  large  benefactions,  which  soon  led  to 
decay  of  discipline.  At  length  schism  entered  the 
order,  the  chief  wing  of  which  still  submitted  to  the 
Pope,  the  other,  deciding  against  his  authority,  were 
known  as  anti-Franciscans,  who  soon  became  sub- 
divided into  Fratricelli  or  Minorites,  the  Tertiaries  or 
Beghards,  and  the  Spirituals.  Contemporary  with 
the  Franciscan  Order  was  another  order  of  teaching 
and  preaching  friars  founded  by  Dominic  de  Guzman, 


LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS.  1 5 

who  laid  themselves  out  to  convert  heretics.  Antip- 
athies and  jealousies  existed  between  monks,  friars, 
and  clergy  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  but  they 
were  a  unit  in  acknowledging  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
to  be  the  spiritual  head  of  Christendom.  As  the 
Caesarean  succession  waned,  the  Petrine  succession 
gradually  and  naturally  took  its  place,  and  to  estab- 
lish the  claim  with  some  formal  show  of  legality  the 
"  decretals  "  were  invented  to  bolster  up  the  inherent 
supremacy  of  spiritual  power  which  first  made  the 
Pope  suzerain  of  all  Church  property  throughout  the 
world,  and  as  a  precedent  was  eventually  applied  to 
all  temporal  affairs,  which  first  reached  its  height  in 
the  time  of  Innocent  III.  (i  198-12 16).  The  univer- 
sities of  Paris  and  Oxford  were  great  intellectual 
centers  during  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Sorbonne  of 
Paris  was  the  center  around  which  the  Church  of 
France  revolved,  and  previous  to  the  Reformation 
was  the  theological  oracle  of  Europe. 

In  1491  the  Sorbonne  and  Parlement  united  in 
defying  an  excommunication,  and  eleven  years  after- 
wards the  resolution  was  repeated.  In  the  sixteenth 
century,  however,  the  Gallicanism  of  France  became 
Erastian.  It  was  the  Authority  of  Paris,  and  not 
the  Scriptures,  that  Luther  first  pitted  against  Rome. 
The  Pope's  militia,  the  friars,  under  the  canon  of 
obedience,  were  everywhere  carrying  out  his  will. 
They  intruded  into  parishes,  and  persuaded  the  peo- 


l6  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

pie  that  they  were  better  guides  in  the  discharge  of 
their  duty  than  the  parochial  clergy,  hence  disorder 
and  immorality  increased.  John  Wiclif  denounced 
the  friars  as  the  pest  of  society,  and  the  enemies  to 
truth.  The  spirit  of  inquiry  and  research  had  long 
taken  hold  of  the  minds  of  men  within  and  without 
the  Church.  Dante  had  more  than  one  object  in 
writing  his  immortal  poem.  The  council  assembled 
at  Constance,  in  1414,  v/here  such  men  as  Peter 
d'Ailly,  Cardinal  Zarabella,  Robert  Hallam  and  John 
Gerson  represented  the  Church,  were  of  one  mind 
as  to  the  great  need  of  moral  regeneration,  and  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  reform,  but  their  efforts  were  over- 
ruled in  much  the  same  way  as  the  reforming  minor- 
ity was  forestalled,  in  the  following  century,  at  the 
Council  of  Trent.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that 
the  religious  thought  of  Europe  was  in  a  state  of 
fermentation  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury. The  repelling  of  the  Turk  served  for  a  time  to 
reunite  the  Christian  brotherhood,  that  seemed  to 
be  fast  disintegrating ;  and  if  the  Church  had  then 
been  inspired  with  the  serpentine  wisdom  which  was 
her  heritage,  she  would  at  once  have  abandoned  a 
position  founded  upon  the  imaginary  dreams  of 
emperors  and  princes  of  an  imposing  universal 
dominion,  to  make  Christians  by  coercion,  and  offi- 
cered by  a  head  claiming  infallibility  alone,  which 
the  new  era  of  research,  and  the  making  and  unmak- 


LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS. 


17 


ing  of  Popes  during  the  later  years  of  the  fifteenth 
century  showed  clearly  to  the  world  to  be,  not  only 
a  hopeless  impossibility,  but  a  senseless  usurpation. 
Just  before  the  Reformation  there  was,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, an  almost  complete  abandonment  in  equity 
in  ecclesiastical  judgments.  Error  had  smothered 
the  genuine  dogmas  of  the  Church.  Learning  in 
sacred  literature  was  practically  a  dead  letter.  The 
high  class  layman  had  long  been  jealous  of  ecclesi- 
astics. Moral  discipline  had  lapsed,  and  the  immo- 
rality of  the  clergy  was  pronounced  in  many  places, 
although  it  is  the  greatest  libel  to  accuse  them  of 
ignorance  as  to  what  piety  was.  The  downfall  of 
the  clergy  can  easily  be  traced  to  the  study  of  Phi- 
losophy and  Metaphysics,  which  in  its  earlier  stages 
was  wholly  subservient  to  Theology,  but  eventually 
it  prevailed,  and  settled  the  dogma  of  Transubstanti- 
ation  upon  the  Church  in  121 5.  Nothing  short  of 
bigotry  or  wickedness  would  fasten  the  charge  of 
ignorance  upon  the  clergy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
although  it  has  only  an  indirect  bearing  upon  my 
subject,  I  will  deviate  somewhat  in  order  to  have  a 
broader  conception  of  the  assertion.  In  England 
the  sixth  canon  of  Cloveshou  in  747  enacts :  "  that 
the  Bishops  shall  ordain  no  man,  either  as  clerk  or 
monk,  to  the  holy  degree  of  priesthood  without 
public  inquiry  as  to  his  previous  life,  and  his  present 
purity  of  morals  and  knowledge  of  the  faith.     For 


l8  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

how  can  he  preach  to  others  the  whole  faith,  minis- 
ter the  word  of  knowledge,  and  appoint  to  sinners 
the  measure  of  penance,  unless  he  first,  with  studious 
care,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  capacity,  takes 
pains  to  learn,  so  that  according  to  the  Apostle,  he 
may  be  able  to  exhort  according  to  sound  doc- 
trine." 

Charlemagne  in  his  capitulary  addressed  to  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  in  789  A.  D.,  says  :  "  We 
beseech  your  piety,  that  the  ministers  of  God's  altar 
may  adorn  their  ministry  by  good  morals — whether 
as  canons,  by  the  observance  of  their  order,  or,  as 
monks,  by  the  performance  of  their  vow — we  entreat 
that  they  may  maintain  a  good  and  laudable  life  and 
conversation,  as  our  Lord  in  the  Gospel  commands. 
Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,"  etc. 

Again  in  the  Capitula  data  Presbyteris,  in  the 
year  804,  he  says  :  ^'  I  would  admonish  you,  my 
brethren  and  sons,  to  give  attention  to  these  few 
capitula  which  follow  : — 

L  That  a  priest  of  God  should  be  learned  in  the 
Holy  Scripture,  and  rightly  believe  and  teach  to 
others  the  faith  of  the  Trinity,  and  be  able  properly 
to  fill  his  office. 

n.  That  he  should  have  the  whole  psalter  by 
heart. 

in.  That  he  should  know  by  heart  the  creed  and 
the  office  for  baptism. 


LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS,  19 

IV.  That  he  should  be  learned  in  the  canons  and 
well  know  his  penitential. 

V.  That  he  should  know  the  chants  and  the  cal- 
endar. 

Raban  Maurus,  in  his  book  "  De  Institutione 
Clericorum,"  819,  says:  "That  the  canons  and  de- 
crees of  Pope  Zosimus  have  decided,  that  a  clerk 
proceeding  to  Holy  Orders  shall  continue  five  years 
among  the  readers,  or  exorcists ;  and  after  that,  shall 
be  an  acolyte  or  subdeacon,  four  years.  That  he 
shall  not  be  admitted  to  Deacon's  orders  before  he 
is  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  that  if,  during  five 
years,  he  ministers  irreproachably,  he  may  be  pro- 
moted to  Priest's  orders  ;  but  on  no  account  before 
he  is  thirty  years  of  age,  even  though  he  should  be 
pequliarly  qualified,  for  our  Lord  Himself  did  not 
begin  to  preach  until  He  had  attained  that  age."  ^ 

The  constitutions  of  Reculfus,  Bishop  of  Soissons, 
889  A.  D.,  to  his  clergy,  said  : — "  Know,  therefore, 
that  this  is  addressed  to  you,  '  Be  ye  clean,  ye  that 
bear  the  vessels  of  the  Lord,'  which  you  must  not 
suppose  to  refer  only  to  the  cleansing  of  the  chalice 
and  paten,  wherein  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is 
consecrated,  but  also  to  preach  cleanliness  and  men- 
tal purity,"  etc.  If  we  were  called  upon  to  compare 
libraries  of  the  fifteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries,  we 
must  admit  that  the  latter  excels  in  quantity,  but  if 
»  Lib.  i-c.  xiii.  Ap.  Bib.  Pat.  torn.  x.  572. 


20  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

quality  was  under  examination,  we  are  quite  sure 
that  for  high  thinking  and  solid  worth  the  Middle 
Age  library  would  eclipse  the  ordinary  modern  col- 
lection. If  one  would  take  the  pains  to  look  into 
the  life  and  work  of  St.  Ninian,  St.  Mungo,  St.  Bene- 
dict, St.  Columba,  St.  Aidan,  St.  Chad,  The  Vener- 
able Bede,  St.  Cuthbert,  St.  Meinrad,  the  Monk  of 
the  Alps,  St.  Dunstan,  Abelard  of  Cluny,  the  monas- 
teries of  Croyland,  St.  Denis,  Bee,  or  Vallambrosa, 
not  to  say  anything  of  the  great  schoolmen  of  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  such  as  Alexander 
Hales,  Thomas  Aquinas,  Bonaventura,  Roger  Bacon, 
^gidius  de  Columna,  John  Duns  Scotus,  Durand, 
W.  Occham,  Walter  Burley,  and  Raymond  LuUy, 
he  would  at  once  suspect  that  ignorance  on  the  part 
of  monk  or  priest  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  was 
the  exception.  I  have  before  me  a  list  of  Thomas 
Cranmer's  Books,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ( 1 489- 
1556)  and  of  Bilibald  Pirkheimer  of  Nuremberg  (1470- 
1530).  Cranmer's  library  contains  42  MSS.,  contain- 
ing 93  separate  works,  and  369  printed  volumes, 
containing  355  works.  The  greater  part  of  this  library 
is  made  up  of  biblical,  theological,  and  liturgical 
works.  Pirkheimer's  library  was  collected  about 
1490,  and  the  partial  list  of  1 1 1  volumes  is  chiefly 
made  up  of  classics,  canon  law,  and  the  Fathers.^ 
Before  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages  England  had  95 
'  Diet,  of  Book  Collectors,  1892. 


LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS.  21 

colleges  and  schools  ;  259  were  established  before 
1546,  and  132  of  these  foundations  of  learning  are 
still  in  existence.  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  had 
3,000  volumes  in  its  library  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  The  catalogue  made  of  the 
Glastonbury  library  in  1247  shows  that  the  monks 
had  then  400  volumes.  The  Middle  Age  list  of 
Peterborough  books  printed  by  Gunton  comprises 
some  1,700  works  in  268  volumes.  As  to  literature, 
Italy  can  boast  of  Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio, 
Politiano,  Pulci,  Boiardo,  Ariosto,  Alamanni,  Tasso, 
Trissino,  Rucellai,  Sanazzaro,  Berni,  Machiavelli,  Are- 
tino  and  Giovanni,  Lorenzo,  and  Cosmo  de'  Medici. 
Cosmo  de'  Medici,  the  great  collector  of  Greek, 
Hebrew,  Chaldaic,  and  Arabic  MSS.,  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  two  libraries  in  Florence.  Pope  Nicholas 
v.,  the  founder  of  the  Vatican  library,  invited  the 
Greek  scholars  Chrysoloras,  Bessario,  Gaza,  and 
Argyropulos  to  Rome  to  help  revive  the  love  of 
study  in  the  Italian  court,  and  very  soon  the  whole 
of  Italy  thrilled  with  the  spirit  of  inquiry  and  re- 
search. The  literary  characters  of  England  are 
legion.  Amongst  those  not  already  named  might 
be  mentioned  Beauclerc,  Simon  de  Montfort,  Ed- 
ward I.,  Grosseteste,  Theobald,  Langton,  Vacarius, 
Gervase,  Hugh  of  Lincoln,  Theodore,  Giraldus  Cam- 
brensis,  Wilfrid,  John  of  Salisbury,  Thomas  Becket, 
Jocelin,    Peter  of   Blois,  Robert   Pullus,    Roger   of 


22  THE   WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Hovenden,  Alcuin,  Glanville,  Walter  Map,  Linacre, 
Langfranc,  Anselm,  Grocyn,  Hearne,  Dugdale,  Cax- 
ton,  Erasmus,  Colet,  and  More.  It  is  to  the  Dark 
Ages  that  students  of  art,  architecture,  and  painting 
turn  for  light.  When  we  consider  that  painters 
must  be  students  of  history,  and  the  preponderance 
of  subjects  being  sacred  characters,  it  would  surely 
be  absurd  to  affirm  that  religion  was  either  dead  or 
dying  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Italy  was  especially  for- 
tunate with  great  artists,  a  few  of  which  are,  Cima- 
bue  and  Buffalmacco  (1302),  Brunelleschi  and  Donato 
(1400),  Aretino  (1408),  Raphael  (1450),  Giovanni 
Angelico  the  Friar  (1455),  Ghiberti  (1455),  Francia 
(1470),  Uccelo  (1472),  Grosso  (1488),  Michael  Angelo 
(1495),  Leonardo  da  Vinci  (1497),  Pinturicchio  (1513), 
Monsignori  (15 19),  Torrigiano  (1522),  Andrea  del 
Sarto  (1529),  Correggio  (1534).  As  Spain  was  the 
greatest  power  in  Europe  at  the  end  of  the  middle 
ages,  it  necessarily  deserves  some  notice.  Spanish 
literature  received  its  impetus  from  Italy.  Begin- 
ning with  the  thirteenth  century,  we  have  the  poem 
of  the  Cid,  the  old  ballads,  the  old  historical  poems, 
the  old  chronicles,  and  the  old  theater  which  forms 
the  main  elements  of  a  distinctively  national  poetry. 
While  there  is  little  chronicled  in  these  poems  other 
than  the  deeds  of  chivalry  and  romance,  there  is 
something  about  them  that  is  striking  and  original. 
Germany  is  less  fortunate  in  this  respect,  her  early 


LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS. 


23 


ballads  being  wholly  given  over  to  romance  until 
the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  earliest 
MSS.  dating  from  the  fourteenth  century  contains 
the  poems  of  140  minnesingers  or  wandering  min- 
strels, made  up  of  pictures  of  the  knightly  life  of  the 
times.  Reinmar  of  Zweter,  Walter  of  the  Vogelweid, 
the  greatest  lyric  poet  before  Goethe,  Tannhauser, 
the  Nebelungenlied,  Wolfdietrich  and  Gudrun, 
Henry  of  Valdecke,  Godfrey  of  Strassburg,  and 
Wolfram  of  Eschenbach  in  his  Holy  Grail,  are  the 
classics  until  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, about  which  time  the  monks,  friars,  inquisitors, 
and  legates  superseded  the  spirit  of  German  ro- 
mance by  asceticism,  which  entirely  changed  the 
current  of  men's  thoughts.  In  making  this  state- 
ment I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  spasmodic  attempts 
that  had  been  made  by  Gaulish  monks  and  mission- 
aries to  carry  the  Gospel  to  their  ancestors  upon 
the  Rhine.  Lupus  visited  the  Rhine  in  the  fifth 
century,  St.  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Germany,  in  the 
eighth,  and  Ansgar  and  Bruno  did  much  for  sections 
of  Germany  after  it  became  a  distinct  nation. 

It  is  commonly  understood,  and  in  fact  writers  who 
call  themselves  historians,  constantly  repeat  that  the 
Bible  was  not  known  in  the  Middle  Ages.  This  is  an 
old  fiction  first  published  by  D'Aubigne,  wherein  he 
gives  an  account  of  Luther's  finding  the  Bible  at 
Erfurt  in  1503.     He  goes  on  to  state  that  after  the 


24  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

young  student  had  been  at  the  university  two  years, 
he  was  looking  over  the  books  in  the  library  one  day, 
when  he  came  across  a  volume  that  arrests  his  atten- 
tion. He  has  seen  nothing  like  it  to  this  moment. 
He  reads  the  title.  It  is  a  Bible ;  a  rare  book,  un- 
known in  those  days  ;  he  is  overcome  with  wonder 
at  finding  more  in  the  volume  than  those  fragments 
of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  made  familiar  to  him  in 
his  breviary.  Elsewhere  this  author  has  told  us  in 
his  history  that  Luther's  father  rose  from  humble 
circumstances  to  be  a  man  of  means,  and  frequently 
invited  clergy  and  schoolmasters  to  his  table.  What- 
ever the  influence,  he  tells  us  that  the  boy's  mind 
having  taken  a  grave  and  attentive  cast,  the  father 
determined  to  send  him  to  school,  where  he  was 
undoubtedly  taught  the  Catechism,  Commandments, 
Creed,  Lord's  Prayer,  and  Canticles.  He  was  sent  to 
the  Latin  school  of  Mansfield,  next  to  Magdeburg, 
then  to  Isenach,  and  finally  to  the  University  of 
Erfurt,  where  he  found  the  Bible.  Luther  became 
an  Augustinian  friar  in  1505  and  was  ordained  to  the 
priesthood  the  following  year.  In  1508  he  was  ap- 
pointed lecturer  of  philosophy  at  the  newly-founded 
school  of  Wittenberg.  In  1509  he  took  his  B.  D., 
and  in  15 12  began  to  preach  the  Word  of  God,  from 
which  time  he  bent  his  energies  to  overthrow  scho- 
lasticism, by  attacking  the  theory  of  penances  and 
superabundant  merits.     In  this  he  was  simply  follow- 


LIGHT  IN  DARKNESS. 


25 


ing  in  the  steps  of  many  schoolmen  before  him.  He 
still  continued  to  have  the  deepest  reverence  for  the 
Church  and  her  institutions  as  the  depository  of 
Divine  authority.  It  is  indeed  very  strange  that 
Luther,  a  professed  philosopher,  familiar  with  the 
writings  of  Occham,  Scot,  Bonaventura,  and  Thomas 
Aquinas,  should  not  have  heard  of  the  Bible.  There 
had  been  a  printing-press  set  up  in  the  town  of 
Erfurt  before  Luther  was  born.  In  1497  Le  Long 
gives  an  account  of  editions  of  the  whole  Bible 
printed  at  Strassburg,  Cologne,  Venice,  Paris,  and 
Nuremberg.  The  Bible  had  been  printed  at  Naples, 
Florence,  Placenza,  and  Venice  where  eleven  com- 
plete editions  had  been  finished  alone.  Maitland  in 
his  history  of  the  Dark  Ages  says :  "  It  would  be 
within  the  bounds  of  truth  to  assert,  that  the  press 
had  issued  fifty  different  editions  of  the  whole  Latin 
Bible,  to  say  nothing  of  Psalters  and  New  Testa- 
ments, (twenty  alone  belonging  to  Germany),  before 
Luther  was  born.  A  printing  press  had  also  been 
set  up  at  Rome,  and  the  printers  had  the  assurance 
to  memorialize  his  holiness  the  Pope,  praying  that 
he  would  help  them  off  with  a  few  copies. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   GERMAN    REVOLT. 

To  return  once  more  to  our  argument  of  cause  and 
effect,  we  must  remember  that  mysticism  was  the 
rival  of  scholasticism  throughout  the  stormy  period 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  love  of  the  marvelpus  came 
from  the  East  through  Dionysius  who  had  embraced 
the  tenets  of  Theosophy.  It  was  Johannes  Scotus 
Erigena  who  first  applied  cold  and  exact  logic  to 
religion  in  the  ninth  century  and  the  monks  and 
clerks  who  were  discomforted  because  they  failed  in 
analyzing  or  expressing  the  mysteries  of  Divine  truth, 
turned  to  the  extreme  of  contemplation  which  they 
believed  would  lead  to  perfect  holiness  and  spiritual 
knowledge.  There  were  many  efforts  made  through- 
out the  Middle  Ages  to  reconcile  these  contending 
elements  of  the  heart  and  brain.  The  principles  of 
mysticism  foster  the  self-deifying  tendency,  which 
ultimately  discovers  the  soul  to  be  of  one  substance 
with  God.  Mysticism  degrades  reason  and  destroys 
morality.  It  found  its  way  into  Germany  in  the 
fourteenth  century  and  through  the  cloistral  labors  of 

her  more  industrious  students  developed  a  highly 
26 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT. 


organized  religious  theosophy.  The  only  parallel 
to  mediaeval  mysticism  is  to  be  found  in  modern 
Methodism  and  other  sects  who  advocate  a  sensible 
instantaneous  conversion.  Mysticism  reveals  the  in- 
nate desire  for  apprehending  God,  but  as  this  faculty 
is  a  gift,  it  therein  fails  to  propagate  and  perpetuate 
itself.  It  has  no  genealogy.  Mysticism  taught  that 
religion  was  intensely  personal  and  individual,  bring- 
ing the  soul  face  to  face  with  God,  without  any  inter- 
mediary, which  accords  with  the  subjective  principle 
of  Protestantism.  Such  were  Tauler  and  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  who  were  thoughtful,  conscientious  men, 
peering  through  the  darkness  for  the  light,  striving  to 
realize  the  truth.  They  had  caught  the  spirit  of  the 
Renaissance  and  boldly  preached  reformation  of  life 
and  manners.  Previous  to  reformation  there  was  a 
larger  amount  of  truth  with  the  mystics  than  any 
other  party  in  the  Church,  but  for  lack  of  earthly 
wisdom  which  enables  men  to  maintain  an  even 
balance,  they  degenerated  and  split  off  into  sects, 
many  of  which  held  pantheistic  and  millennarian 
theories.  Such  were  the  Cathari,  the  Brethren  of  the 
Free  Spirit,  the  Dancers,  the  Quietists,  the  Erastians, 
Socinians,  and  Bethlehemites  who  tried  to  realize 
under  ascetic  conditions  some  fixed  standard  of  social 
purity.  In  their  mistaken  zeal,  these  sects  and 
heretics  left  the  Church,  because  of  her  alleged 
slowness  in  keeping  pace  with  the  Renaissance  spirit 


28  THE   WORD  PROTESTANT, 


of  independent  inquiry,  that  was  sweeping  over  Italy 
and  the  West. 

The  Waldenses  or  poor  men  of  the  valleys,  started 
an  independent  movement,  upon  the  principle  of 
selfishness,  in  trying  to  realize  a  social  ideal  adapted 
to  the  wants  and  ambitions  of  the  local  peasantry. 
They  seceded  from  all  restraints  of  authority,  trans- 
lated the  Scriptures  into  their  native  patois,  and,  like 
the  Albigenses,  their  contemporaries,  simply  believed 
in  a  priesthood  of  all  believers.  They  appealed  to 
the  Third  Lateran  Council,  1179  A.  ^->  ^^^  liberty  to 
expound  the  Scriptures.  The  concession  could  not 
be  granted  to  such  artless,  unlettered  rustics.  John 
Wiclif,  of  England,  embraced  their  socialistic  theories, 
and  attacked  the  Church  on  much  the  same  lines. 
In  the  fourteenth  century  the  classical  learning  of  the 
East  was  making  rapid  strides  in  Italy,  and  its  spirit 
was  fast  taking  hold  of  the  Church's  thought  and 
action.  Lorenzo  Valla  (1440),  the  humanist,  was  the 
first  critic  to  point  out  the  weaknesses  of  the  Latin 
Vulgate.  For  this  he  was  censured,  and  the  Roman 
Church  moved  to  suppress  individual  criticism,  lest 
the  destructive  influence  should  penetrate  the  mass, 
who  were  then  unqualified  to  judge  in  matters  of 
such  deep  concern.  To  Rudolph  Agricola  belongs 
the  credit  of  planting  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  learning 
in  German  soil,  and  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century  witnessed  the  introduction  of  university  life, 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT.  29 

established  principally  on  the  Parisian  model.  The 
principal  centers  were  Prague,  Vienna,  Erfurt,  Heidel- 
berg, Cologne,  Leipzig,  and  Rostock,  founded  the 
first  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  course  of 
instruction  given  at  these  centers  was,  after  the 
manner  of  the  old  way  of  thinking,  confined  chiefly 
to  dialectics.  The  schools  that  were  established 
about  the  middle,  and  towards  the  close  of  the 
century,  such  as  Schlettstadt,  Munster,  Amsterdam, 
Kempen,  Alkmer,  and  Deventer ;  the  Universi- 
ties of  Griefswalde  (1456);  Frieberg  (1458);  Basle, 
(1460) ;  Ingolstadt  and  Trier  (1472)  ;  Tubingen  and 
Mainz  (1477);  Wittenberg,  (1502),  and  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Oder  (1506),  were  the  only  centers  that 
can  in  any  sense  be  called  the  foundation-stones 
of  Germany's  intellectual  structure.  The  new  learn- 
ing had  not  been  adopted  by  any  of  those  institu- 
tions on  principle.  It  was  scrutinized  by  the  curious, 
and  pondered  over  by  individual  theologians,  who 
used  it  in  their  sermons  as  a  leaven  to  move  seared 
consciences  that  had  long  been  dead  to  the  privileges 
and  responsibilities  of  the  primitive  Church.  Agri- 
cola,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned,  was  the 
pupil  of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  the  grave,  religious 
humanist  of  his  day.  Reuchlin,  at  whose  feet 
Melanchthon  sat,  was  born  in  1455.  He  was  consid- 
ered the  greatest  man  that  Germany  ever  produced  ; 
and  Erasmus,  his  peer,  was  always  considered  *'the 


30 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 


other  eye  of  Germany."  The  study  of  the  Greek 
developed  new  lines  of  thought,  and  deepened  men's 
respect  more  and  more  for  the  faith  of  the  Church. 
The  new  learning  simply  added  strength  to  Erasmus' 
conviction  (as  was  previously  maintained  by  a  Kem- 
pis),  that  theology  still  remained  the  **  Queen  of 
Sciences."  Erasmus  always  believed  in  the  dissolv- 
ing power  of  learning,  and  felt  that  the  much-needed 
reform  could  only  come  as  the  horizon  of  knowledge 
widened ;  but,  like  his  co-laborers,  Colet  and  More, 
believed  the  Church  to  be  indefectible,  and  still 
possessing  power  to  redeem  herself,  within  and  with- 
out. Erasmus,  hoping  that  the  revival  of  letters 
might  end  in  something  good,  began  at  once  upon 
his  New  Testament  Commentary,  which  first  appeared 
in  1505.  This  was  the  fountain  from  which  Luther 
quaffed.  When  Erasmus  had  finished  his  Paraphrase, 
he  began  a  translation  of  the  Fathers,  which  furnished 
the  weapons  of  controversy  for  our  reformers,  or, 
rather,  restorers  of  the  Church  of  England;  but, 
happily,  scholarship  and  discovery  have  long  since 
enlarged  our  respect  for  those  depositories  of  sacred 
and  secular  learning.  During  the  first  four  years  of 
Luther's  appointment  at  the  High  School  at  Witten- 
berg, he  conscientiously  fulfilled  his  duties  as  a 
lecturer  on  Philosophy,  and  during  the  succeeding 
years  he  loses  sympathy  with  the  schoolmen,  and 
begins  to  use  his  influence  in  the  class-room  and 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT.  3 1 

pulpit  to  change  the  current  of  men's  thoughts, 
although  he  still  maintained  the  deepest  respect  and 
veneration  for  the  Church  of  his  fathers.  Luther's 
suspicions  regarding  the  antiquity  of  the  Papacy, 
was  by  this  time  an  established  conviction,  that  the 
*'  Privilege  of  Peter"  was  a  modern  innovation,  and 
when  the  Apostolic  delegate  offered  his  absolution 
briefs  for  sale  in  the  Market  Square  of  Wittenberg, 
after  the  fashion  of  earlier  Crusading  methods,  his 
ire  was  aroused  to  challenge  the  legitimacy  of  the 
agent's  action  in  raising  money  through  flattery  and 
deceit  from  the  poor  of  his  congregation.  The  more 
he  looked  into  the  system,  the  more  he  was  con- 
vinced that  it  was  dishonest  to  rob  the  poor  for  the 
aggrandizement  of  a  bishop,  who  could,  with  some 
degree  of  truth,  be  called  the  fisherman's  successor. 
But  it  was  certain  that  Leo  X.  had  notoriously 
reversed  the  axiom  that  the  '*  Chiefest  Apostle  "  had 
communicated  to  the  poor  of  the  temple  gate.  From 
this  measure  of  self-protection  initiated  by  Luther 
sprung  up  the  hydra  that  finally  ended  in  a  general 
revolt  against  constituted  authority.  Luther  repeat- 
edly protested  against  the  abuses  of  the  questors, 
which  eventually  led  to  his  famous  protest  of  October, 
1 5 17,  against  the  sale  of  indulgences.  This  was 
viewed  at  Rome  as  sufficient  cause  for  excommunica- 
tion, and  the  Bull  was  issued,  which  Luther  burnt 
December    loth.     On  the   8th   day   of   May,  1521, 


32 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


Luther  stood  alone,  in  the  Diet  of  Worms,  a  declared 
outlaw,  under  the  ban  of  the  Empire,  and  soon  after 
retired  to  the  Wartburg,  where  he  began  his  hostile 
work.  He  was  fully  alive  to  the  situation,  and  in  the 
heat  of  passion  he  had  already  indited  an  address  to 
the  nobility  which  seethes  with  inflammatory  invec- 
tive and  intolerance  to  the  last  degree.  This  argument 
to  the  pocket  was  the  manifesto  of  the  Reformation  in 
Germany,  and  the  newly-invented  printing-press  made 
it  popular  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  personal  influ- 
ence. It  was  the  spirit  of  this  war-cry  that  encour- 
aged the  princes  at  Spires,  who  had  dreams  and 
visions  of  revenue,  when  they  made  their  famous 
protest  against  the  action  of  the  loyal  Church  party 
who  favored  declaring  the  Diet  of  Worms  conclusive. 
Luther's  Babylonish  Captivity  had  already  appeared 
(October,  1520),  and  the  Curia  determined  to  show 
no  mercy  to  the  self-professed  heretic.  This  work 
reached  England  in  April  of  the  following  year,  and 
by  the  25th  of  August,  Henry  VHL,  who  was  some- 
thing of  a  theologian,  had  issued  his  rejoinder,  for 
which  the  Pope  felt  so  deeply  indebted  that  he  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  title,  "  Fidei  Defensor."  From 
the  Castle  of  the  Wartburg  letters  were  soon  speed- 
ing to  every  quarter  of  Germany.  The  whole  coun- 
try was  visibly  agitated,  Wittenberg  being  on  the 
verge  of  revolt.  Luther  was  a  busy  man — one  day 
helping  to  quell  a  riot,  the  next  trying  to  appease 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT.  33 

the  angry  controversialists  of  Switzerland  and  Ger- 
many, and  the  conscious  responsibility  for  the  Peas- 
ants' war,  which  justified  itself  upon  rehgious  grounds, 
was  cause  to  him  for  great  anxiety.  With  it  all,  he 
steadily  continued  to  make  his  new  translation  of  the 
New  Testament  and  Pentateuch  into  German.  He 
held  the  Bible  above  all  else,  and  to  be  the  work  of 
the  Divine  Spirit,  but  he  did  not  hold  this  spirit  cap- 
tive to  the  letter.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  express 
his  dislike  for  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  and  the 
Revelation  of  St.  John.  He  did  not  regard  the 
Apocalypse  as  the  work  of  an  apostle.  In  his  preface 
to  the  book,  he  says :  "  Some  have  concocted  many 
ridiculous  things  out  of  their  own  heads."  He 
claimed  that  there  was  no  prophet  in  the  Old  or  New 
Testament  who  deals  so  entirely  in  visions.  I  there- 
fore put  this  book  on  a  par  with  the  "  Apocalypse  of 
Ezra,"  and  I  certainly  cannot  detect  any  trace  of  its 
having  been  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost. ^ 

Melanchthon's  digest  of  the  doctrines  of  faith,  as 
presented  in  the  Scriptures  appeared  in  1 521.  Dis- 
integration was  fast  going  on  within  the  Church. 
Disputations  were  frequent  and  tended  to  everything 
but  peace.  In  1524  the  Landgrave  Philip  authorized 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  throughout  his  ter- 
ritories, which  was  accomplished  by  ignorant  fanatics 
who  preached  anarchy  as  the  solvent  for  all  present  and 
J  Hagenbach's  Hist.  Reformation,  I.,  p.  160. 


34  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

future  ills,  and  Lambert,  a  French  reformer,  appeared 
in  Hesse  in  1526.  He  held  views  similar  to  Luther's 
at  first,  but  they  gradually  widened,  until  the  Consti- 
tution and  discipline  of  the  Church  was  made  to  rest 
upon  the  broadest  democratic  platform.  He  con- 
tended that  every  individual  church  should  have  the 
right  to  choose  its  own  pastor,  to  whom  Episcopal 
authority  should  belong,  there  being  no  authority 
above  that  of  pastors.  He  asserted  that  there  was  a 
double  calling — the  first  being  internal  to  the  state  of 
a  Christian,  and  the  second  was  external  to  the  office 
and  ministry  of  the  Church,  the  latter  being  valueless 
without  the  former.  Luther  rested  his  cause  upon 
the  pure  word  of  God  being  preached,  but  the  Mass 
was  to  be  continued  in  Latin,  and  due  fasting  en- 
joined upon  the  people,  until  occasion  and  circum- 
stances demand  something  different. 

On  the  twentieth  Sunday  after  Trinity,  1525,  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  for  the  first  time  celebrated  at 
Wittenberg  in  the  German  language.  Shortly  after 
this  event,  Luther  brought  out  his  German  Mass 
(Missa  Est),  and  in  addressing  his  readers  says : — 
*'  Above  all  things,  I  most  affectionately,  and  for 
God's  sake,  beseech  all  who  see  or  desire  to  deserve 
this,  our  order  of  Divine  Service,  on  no  account  to 
make  it  a  compulsory  law,  or  to  ensnare  or  captivate 
the  conscience  of  any  thereby,  but  to  use  it  agree- 
ably to  Christian  liberty  and  their  good  pleasure  as 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT, 


35 


where,  when,  and  as  long  as  circumstances  favor  and 
demand  it.^ 

Luther  desired  to  retain  the  Mass  for  the  love 
of  the  language  of  antiquity,  as  he  says :  "  I  am 
most  deeply  interested  in  your  youth  ;  and  if  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  tongues  were  as  familiar  to  us  as 
the  Latin,  and  possessed  as  great  store  of  fine  music 
and  song  as  that  does,  were  I  able  to  bring  it  about, 
Mass  should  be  celebrated,  and  there  should  be  sing- 
ing and  reading  in  our  churches  on  alternate  Sundays 
in  all  four  languages,  German,  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew."  A  second  form  of  service  he  proposed  was 
the  German  Mass,  "  for  the  sake  of  simple  laymen," 
and  finally  a  third  form  of  Divine  Service  was  set 
forth  to  represent  the  true  type  of  Evangelical  order, 
for  those  who  desire  to  be  Christians  in  earnest,  ready 
to  profess  the  Gospel  with  hand  and  mouth.  In 
this  it  was  recommended  that  they  should  assemble 
frequently  for  prayer,  to  read,  baptize,  receive  the 
Sacrament  and  practise  Christian  works.  In  this  way 
he  says : — Christians  could  be  recognized,  reproved, 
reformed,  rejected  or  excommunicated  in  accordance 
with  Christ's  rule  (St.  Matt,  xviii.  15  sqq.).  Here 
we  have  the  root  idea  of  *'  Ecclesiola  in  Ecclesia." 
Luther  frequently  has  misgivings  as  to  the  outcome 
of  it  all  as  "  he  says,"  the  Germans  are  a  savage, 
rude,  tempestuous  people,  but  he  consoles  himself 
*  Luther's  Werke,  Edit,  by  Walch,  vol.  x. 


36  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

by  thinking  they  are  not  lightly  to  be  led  into 
anything  new,  unless  there  be  most  urgent  occa- 
sion. 

In  1528  the  visitation  of  the  Saxon  churches  took 
place,  and  in  the  preface  to  the  Smaller  Catechism, 
then  being  introduced,  he  takes  occasion  to  explain 
that,  "  many  pastors  are  utterly  unfit  and  incompetent 
to  teach.  And  yet  they  are  all  called  Christians, 
they  are  baptized  and  attend  upon  the  holy  Sacra- 
ments, they  know  neither  '  Our  Father,'  nor  *  the 
creed,'  nor  the  '  ten  commandments,'  but  live  like 
cattle  and  irrational  swine.  Yet  now  that  the  Gospel 
has  come,  they  have  learned  excellently  well  to  make 
a  masterly  abuse  of  Christian  liberty."  ^ 

In  1529  the  Larger  Catechism  had  been  distributed 
amongst  the  more  competent.  In  this  work  he  re- 
garded preaching  as  the  greatest  and  most  essential 
thing.  He  recommended  the  Gospels  to  be  explained 
at  week-day  services,  but  on  Sundays,  he  says,  ''  we 
sanction  the  retention  of  the  chasuble,  crucifix,  altar, 
and  candles,"  which  are  used  to  this  day  through- 
out Protestant  Germany.  He  laid  great  stress  upon 
the  continuance  of  the  custom  of  elevating  the  bread 
and  wine  at  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  he  also  retained  the  Sanctus,  but  ordered  it  sung 
in  German,  which  he  set  to  music  himself.  In  1520 
the  loi  grievances  against  the  Pope  were  considered. 
>  Hagenbach,  ii.  9-18. 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT. 


37 


Great  changes  were  taking  place  in  the  domain  of 
politics,  as  the  battle  of  Pavia  almost  brought  the  bal- 
ance of  power  to  the  feet  of  Charles  V.,  and  he  more 
than  ever  felt  emboldened  to  root  out  the  Lutheran 
heresy.  The  German  Estates  were  reproved  for  not 
executing  the  provisions  of  the  Edict  of  Worms,  and 
appointed  a  convention  of  the  Diet  of  Augsburg, 
January,  1526.  This  meeting  adjourned,  without  ef- 
fecting any  special  results,  to  meet  again  at  Speier 
in  the  following  May.  The  Diet  was  not  opened 
until  the  25th  of  June,  when  a  letter  from  his  Im- 
perial Majesty  Charles  V.  demanded  the  execution 
of  the  Edict  of  Worms.  Mutterings  were  heard  on 
every  side,  that  the  common  people  were  already  too 
well  instructed  to  surrender  themselves  any  longer 
with  simple  faith  to  the  leading  of  others.  Various 
conciliatory  measures  were  proposed,  as  the  cup  to 
the  laity,  priestly  marriages,  diminution  of  fasts,  etc., 
but  no  decision  was  reached.  On  the  27th  of  August 
an  abstract  of  the  proceedings  were  published  which 
granted  a  temporary  measure  of  toleration,  which 
allowed  the  princes  of  the  various  provinces  to  man- 
age their  own  ecclesiastical  affairs.  From  this  funda- 
mental idea  the  principle  of  parity  took  root.  Philip 
of  Hesse  took  matters  into  his  own  hands,  and 
availed  himself  of  the  assistance  of  the  exiled 
Lambert.  Ferdinand,  the  brother  of  Charles  V., 
had  just  come  into  possession  of  the  throne  of  Hun- 


38  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

gary  and  Bohemia  and  at  once  published  a  severe 
edict  against  every  departure  from  the  Roman  faith, 
which  together  with  a  "  terrible  secret "  invented  by 
one  Otto  von  Pack,  who  offered  to  reveal  the  certain 
plot,  entered  into  at  Breslau  for  the  surrender  of 
Luther  and  all  heretical  preachers,  to  Philip  of  Hesse 
for  4,000  florins  cash.  These  unfortunate  measures 
only  served  to  widen  the  breach  that  v/as  fast  sepa- 
rating clergy  and  laity.  Even  after  Pack's  invention 
was  exposed  and  he  was  banished  the  country, 
Luther  still  had  suspicions  that  there  was  some 
truth  in  the  story.  The  whole  of  Germany  was  now 
clamoring  for  a  council,  and  the  Emperor  called  for  a 
new  Diet  at  Speier,  which  finally  assembled  the  15th 
of  March,  1529.  Frederick  represented  the  absent 
emperor,  and  the  Roman  party,  who  had  a  distinct 
majority,  resolved  to  annul  the  deliverance  of  the 
former  Diet  of  1526,  whereupon  the  Elector  of  Sax- 
ony, the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  the  two  Dukes  of 
Luxemburg,  Philip  the  landgrave  of  Hesse,  the 
Prince  of  Anhalt  and  the  deputies  of  fourteen  cities 
of  the  Empire  drew  up  a  written  protestation  in  the 
**  Retscher  Palace "  against  the  alleged  arbitrary 
decree,  and  their  followers  were  ever  after  called 
"  Protestants."  It  will  be  quite  obvious  from  the 
foregoing  that  neither  Scripture  nor  classics  entered 
into  the  formal  protest,  which  was  purely  local  in  char- 
acter, and  negative  in  action,  just  as  we  would  pro- 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT.  39 

test  against  an  unjust  act  or  repudiate  an  illegal 
claim.  It  was  not  so  much  the  word  itself  as  it  was 
the  action  of  the  lay  princes  that  influenced  all  future 
thought  and  method  upon  the  continent.  Protests 
were  not  uncommon.  They  had  been  known  to 
churchmen  throughout  all  the  ages.  The  basic  prin- 
ciple underlying  the  action  of  our  primitive  bishops 
in  drawing  up  the  Nicene  definition  of  the  faith,  was 
intended  to  rebuke  the  errors  of  Arianism.  The 
Athanasian  creed  likewise  is  an  ancient  protest 
against  the  Archheretics  Arius,  Sabellius,  Nestorius, 
and  Apollinaris  who  had  endeavored  in  every  way 
to  stifle  or  contract  the  truth.  The  Gallican  Church 
had  protested  frequently  against  the  invasion  of  her 
liberties  by  the  See  of  Rome.  The  cardinals  them- 
selves had  solemnly  protested  against  abuses  of  the 
Curia  in  1 297.  In  turning  to  England  we  can  reason- 
ably cite  the  Magna  Charta  as  a  declaration  of  the 
Church  and  Nation  against  oppression  and  selfishness. 
The  State  protested  at  Merton  in  1236  against  the 
intrusion  of  the  Papal  government  at  will  and  pleas- 
ure, and  again  in  1297  Parliament  began  in  earnest 
to  protest  in  the  form  of  statutes  against  Papal  law- 
lessness. Archbishop  Chicheley  protested  against  the 
decisions  of  Pope  Martin  V.,  Archbishop  Cranmer 
standing  at  Christ  Church  gate,  Oxford,  1536,  uttered 
his  memorable  protest  against  the  autocracy  of  the 
Pope  to  a  general  council,  and  Henry  VIII.,  the  most 


40 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


Catholic  prince  in  Christendom,  protested  against  the 
Council  of  Mantua  or  Vicenza  in  1538.  Still,  there 
was  no  thought  in  the  mind  of  any  churchman,  ex- 
pressed or  implied,  to  create  schism  in  the  body  of 
Christ.  After  1529  Luther  is  no  longer  the  leader 
of  the  Protestant  Reformation  in  Germany.  His 
temporizing  methods  were  anomalous,  and  he  gra- 
ciously yielded  of  necessity  to  the  impulses  that  his 
voice  and  pen  had  set  in  motion.  Luther  had  already 
assumed  power  to  place  pastors  over  congregations, 
and  these  Gospel  preachers  were  everywhere  forced 
into  churches  without  any  ordination,  by  the  Elector 
of  Saxony  and  Philip  of  Hesse,  and  when  Charles  V. 
demanded  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  1530,  that  they 
should  be  silenced,  the  Princes  answered  "  that 
they  could  not  with  a  good  conscience  comply  with 
the  request  of  His  Majesty."  The  principle  of  their 
defense  was  *'  that  in  matters  of  conscience,  they, 
the  minority,  could  submit  themselves  to  no  major- 
ity, but  only  the  word  of  God."  Luther's  German 
Testament  had  been  in  circulation  since  1522,  and 
there  was  in  consequence  much  expounding  that 
went  by  the  name  of  preaching  that  was  nothing  less 
than  pure  anarchy.  The  judicious  Hooker  in  the 
opening  words  of  his  Ecclesiastical  polity  has  de- 
clared a  principle  of  universal  application  when 
he  says,  "  He  that  goeth  about  to  persuade  a  multi- 
tude that  they  are  not    so  well    governed    as  they 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT.  4I 

ought  to  be,  shall  never  want  attentive  and  favorable 
hearers." 

By  1540  the  breach  in  Germany  was  complete 
beyond  recovery,  and  the  minority  is  multiplied  into 
a  vast  majority,  with  pastors  and  superintendents 
established  in  every  province.  The  See  of  Naum- 
burg  fell,  vacant  by  the  death  of  Bishop  Philip,  and 
the  canons  of  the  cathedral  chapter  regularly  elected 
Julius  von  Pflug,  but  the  Elector  of  Saxony  would 
not  recognize  the  choice,  and,  by  virtue  of  his 
sovereign  power,  possessed  himself  of  episcopal  pre- 
rogatives and  constituted  "  Nicholas  Amsdorf,"  the 
superintendent  of  Magdeburg,  administrator  of  spir- 
itual affairs,  with  the  title  of  bishop.  The  installa- 
tion of  Amsdorf  took  place  on  the  20th  of  January, 
1 542.  Luther  was  named  to  perform  the  ordination, 
in  which  he  was  assisted  by  the  pastors  of  Naum- 
burg,  Altenburg  and  Weissenfels.  The  ordination 
was  very  simple,  and  the  canons  were  required  to 
make  oath  that  they  would  render  obedience  to  the 
bishop  in  accordance  with  the  Word  of  God  and 
command  of  Christ.  Such  of  the  nobles  as  resisted 
had  their  estates  confiscated,  and  one  was  cast  into 
prison.^ 

Before  proceeding,  we  must  notice  another  Prot- 
estant named  Zwingli,  who  said  that  he  began  to 
preach  the  Gospel  in  the  year  15 16,  and,  by  way  of 

*  Hagenbach  Hist.  Refn.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  245. 


4^  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

pre-eminence,  he  asks  :  ''  Who  called  me  Lutheran 
then  ?  .  .  .  I  was  ignorant  of  Luther's  name  for  two 
years  after  I  had  made  the  Bible  my  sole  treasury. 
.  .  .  No  man  can  esteem  Luther  more  highly  than 
I,  nevertheless  I  testify  before  God  and  all  mankind 
that  I  never  in  all  my  days  wrote  a  syllable  to  him, 
nor  he  to  me ;  nor  have  I  caused  any  other  to  write 
for  me."  Luther  and  Zwingli  had  much  in  common, 
although  they  were  by  no  means  agreed  as  to  faith 
and  practise  in  religion.  One  quotation  will  serve 
to  make  my  meaning  clear  as  to  Luther's  opinion  of 
Zwinglianism  :  ''  Blessed  is  the  man  that  hath  not 
stood  in  the  council  of  the  Sacramentarians,  and 
hath  not  walked  in  the  ways  of  the  Zwinglians,  nor 
sat  in  the  seat  of  them  at  Zurich."  Luther  and 
Zwingli  held  like  views  on  the  theory  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith  alone,  but  differed  widely  on  other 
things.  Conclusions  as  to  their  divergent  views  can 
easily  be  arrived  at  by  consulting  their  controversial 
writings  and  fixed  standards  of  belief.  In  1525, 
when  the  Eucharistic  controversy  began,  Luther 
considered  the  Word  and  Sacraments  the  foundation 
pillars  of  the  Church,  and  at  this  time  had  no  desire 
to  cut  himself  off  from  the  universal  Church.  Infant 
baptism  had  already  been  attacked  by  the  fanatics  of 
Zwickau,  who  called  it  superstition  and  a  "  farce." 

The  Supper  of  the  Lord  was  next,  the  fiercest 
quarter  of   attack    being   at   Zurich.      Luther  and 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT. 


43 


Zwingli  both  repudiated  the  transubstantiation  oi  the 
bread  in  the  sense  in  Vvhich  this  was  taught  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  battle  waged  long  and 
furiously  around  the  words  *'  Hoc  est  corpus  meum." 
Luther  would  not  go  to  the  extreme  of  making  it  a 
miracle,  but  he  did  assume  a  substantial  (real)  pres- 
ence of  the  Lord's  body  in  the  bread  after  consecra- 
tion, and  it  was  a  presence  he  could  not  understand, 
but  which  all  must  believe.  This  view  he  subse- 
quently expressed  in  the  familiar  term  of  consubstan- 
tiation,  ''  that  the  Body  of  the  Lord  was  contained 
in,  with,  and  under  the  bread,  and  that  every  one, 
even  an  unbelieving  person,  partook  of  this  Body 
really  and  substantially."  He  held  the  same  opinions 
in  regard  to  the  wine  of  the  cup,  and  in  support  of  his 
view  appealed  to  the  omnipotence  of  God.  He  cen- 
tered his  weight  of  argument  upon  the  copula  "  est  " 
from  the  words  of  institution,  and  in  this  particular 
erred  by  giving  disproportionate  emphasis  and  at- 
taching the  burden  of  proof  to  it.  Zwingli  attacked 
this  position,  and  held  that  the  word  ''  is  "  could  not 
have  this  literal  meaning,  and  brought  the  Scriptures, 
which  he  knew  to  be  full  of  pictorial  expressions, 
rhetorical  figures,  similes,  and  metaphors,  to  his  aid. 
When  Christ  says,  ''  I  am  the  vine,"  he  does  not 
mean  that  he  is  such  in  the  natural  sense  of  the 
word ;  and  when  he  called  Peter  a  rock,  he  did  not 
mean  that  the  Apostle,  consisting  of  flesh  and  bone, 


44  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

was  a  mere  stone.  He  contended  that  the  word 
"  is,"  is  employed  many  times  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
has  the  sense  of  signifies,  as  in  the  parable  of  the 
sower,  "■  the  seed  signifies  the  Word  of  God."  The 
fact  remains  that  the  Lord's  Supper  is  designed  to 
lead  us  from  the  visible  to  the  invisible,  and  we  may 
be  assured  that  it  was  not  without  some  design  that 
Christ  accompanied  the  giving  of  the  bread  to  His 
disciples  with  the  words,  *'  Take,  eat :  this  is  my 
body,"  and  Zwingli  had  no  right  to  change  the  words 
"this  is"  into  an  absolute  "this  signifies."  Luther 
and  Zwingli  were  agreed  in  holding  to  the  absolute 
supremacy  of  Scripture  irrespective  of  Church  author- 
ity. Luther  held  a  tentative  doctrine  of  the  real 
presence,  but  Zwingli  absolutely  denied  any  presence 
whatever.  As  a  recent  writer  and  historian  (Prof. 
Collins,  King's  Coll.,  London)  has  stated  that  the 
term  Protestant  properly  belongs  to  those  who  pro- 
fess the  Augustan  Confession,  which  was  drawn  up 
in  June,  1530.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  quote  from 
the  Confession,  and  the  Apology  for  the  Confession  of 
Augsburg,  both  written  by  Luther  and  Melanchthon, 
which  succinctly  express  the  Lutheran  teaching  on 
the  Eucharist  as  it  is  held  and  professed  to  this  day. 

Confession  of  Augsburg,  Apology  for  the  Confession 

1530.  1531- 

"  Falso    accusantur    ecclesiae  "  Initio   hoc   iterum   praefan- 

nostrae,  quod  Missam  aboleant,        dum  est,  nos  non  abolere  Mis- 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT, 


45 


retinetur  enim  Missa  apud  nos, 
et  summa  reverentia  celebratur, 
servantur  et  usitatae  ceremoniae 
fere  omnes  .  .  .  Itaque  non 
videntur  apud  adversaries  Mis- 
sae  majore  religione  fieri  quam 
apud  nos." 

"  Our  churches  are  falsely  ac- 
cused of  abolishing  the  Mass, 
for  the  Mass  is  retained  amongst 
us,  and  is  celebrated  with  the 
greatest  reverence,  and  nearly 
all  the  usual  ceremonies  are  re- 
tained .  .  ,  therefore  Masses 
do  not  appear  to  be  performed 
with  greater  religious  cere- 
mony by  our  adversaries  than 
by  us." 


sam,  sed  religiose  retinere  ac^ 
defendere.  Fiunt  enim  apud 
nos  Missae  singulis  Dominicis  et 
aliis  festis  .  .  .  et  servantur 
usitatae  ceremoniae  publicae, 
ordo  lection  um,  orationum,  ves- 
titus,  etalia  similia." 

"  In  the  first  place  this  must  be 
premised  again,  that  we  do  not 
abolish  the  Mass,  but  scrupu- 
lously retain  and  defend  it.  For, 
the  Masses  are  performed  by  us 
on  the  several  Sundays  and 
other,  festivals,  and  the  usual 
public  ceremonies  are  retained 
such  as  the  order  of  the  lessons, 
prayers,  the  vestments,  and 
other  similar  things." 


In  our  endeavors  to  identify  all  that  is  Protestant 
with  Lutheranism  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  the  Con- 
fession of  Augsburg  retained  the  Mass,  just  as  it  is 
professed  in  Sweden  to-day,  where  they  retain 
Episcopacy  on  principle,  the  Mass-shirt  or  chasuble 
for  their  vestments,  the  Mass  for  their  worship,  and 
consubstantiation  for  their  doctrine.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  neither  Zwingli  nor  the  French  ever  sub- 
scribed the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  and  from  1536 
onwards  a  Zwinglo-Calvinist  party  existed,  holding 
empirical  views  (though  never  called  Protestants)  un- 
til 1549  when  the  "  Consensus  Tigurinus  "  of  Zurich 
fused  them    into   a   consistent   equality  to   oppose 


4.6  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Lutheranism,  which  they  hated  with  a  determined 
and  enduring  disHke. 

It  is  to  Zwinglianism  that  Protestant  sectarianism 
owes  most,  and  if  the  Church  of  England  had  per- 
ished in  Edward's  or  Mary's  reign,  it  was  to  Zurich 
that  the  churchmen  of  that  period  would  have 
looked. 

If  a  man  is  to  be  judged  by  what  he  has  written, 
we  should  say  that  Luther  was  a  strange  compound 
of  good  and  evil.  When  he  says,  ''  Thou  seest  how 
rich  is  the  Christian  ;  even  if  he  will,  he  cannot  de- 
stroy his  salvation  by  any  sins,  how  grievous  soever, 
unless  he  refuse  to  believe."  ''  Be  thou  a  sinner  and 
sin  boldly,  but  still  more  boldly  believe  and  rejoice 
in  Christ.  From  Him  sin  shall  not  separate  us  ;  no, 
though  a  thousand  times  in  every  day  we  should 
commit  fornication  or  murder."  *'  If  in  faith  an 
adultery  were  committed  it  were  no  sin.  The  Gospel 
does  not  bid  us  do  anything,  or  bid  us  leave  anything 
undone  ;  it  exacts  nothing  of  us ;  quite  the  con- 
trary. In  place  of  saying,  '  Do  this.  Do  that,'  it 
simply  requires  us  to  spread  out  our  lap  and  accept, 
saying,  '  Hold  !  See  what  God  has  done  for  you, 
and  given  His  own  Son  to  be  incarnate  for  you  ;  ac- 
cept the  gift,  believe,  and  you  are  saved.'  In  every- 
thing else  he  leaves  you  perfect  liberty  to  do  exactly 
what  you  like,  without  any  peril  to  your  conscience; 
even — for  He   is  quite   indifferent   to   it — you   may 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT.  47 

abandon  your  wife,  or  desert  your  husband,  or  not 
keep  an  engagement  you  have  contracted,  for  what 
concern  is  it  to  God  whether  you  do  these  things  or 
not  ?  "  To  one  suffering  with  remorse  on  account 
of  his  sins  he  wrote,  "  Drink,  play,  laugh,  and  do 
some  sin  even  as  an  act  of  defiance  and  contempt  to 
the  Devil.  Therefore  if  the  devil  says  to  you, '  Don't 
drink  so,*  do  you  reply  to  him,  '  aye,  I  will  drink  all 
the  more  copiously  in  the  name  of  Christ.'  Thus 
do  just  contrary  to  that  which  Satan  (i.  e.  con- 
science) prompts.  One  can  drive  these  Satanic 
thoughts  away  by  introducing  other  thoughts,  such 
as  that  of  a  pretty  girl,  avarice,  drunkenness,  or 
by  giving  way  to  violent  passion ;  such  is  my  ad- 
vice.    ^ 

It  would  be  quite  unfair  to  Luther,  however,  to 
omit  giving  him  credit  for  one  great  truth  which  he 
ennobled,  viz. :  "  The  gifts  of  God  are  without  money 
and  without  price."  Luther  reduced  the  Sacraments 
to  two,  ''  Baptismus  et  Panis,"  although  he  retained 
the  name  of  Sacrament  to  absolution.  He  argued, 
however,  that  if  faith  includes  mystic  incorporation 
with  Christ,  there  is  no  room  for  Sacraments.  He 
reasoned  that  Sacraments  without  faith  are  empty 
forms,  while  with  faith  they  are  simply  recollections, 
spurs  to  effort,  and  opportunities  of  devotion.  He 
attached  no  special  sacramental  efficacy  to  the  water 
1  See  Baring  Gould,  "  Luther  and  Justification." 


48  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

of  baptism  in  his  later  years,  as  he  considered  any 
and  all  water  baptism,  and  any  bread  and  wine 
spiritual  as  well  as  material  aliment  to  the  faithful. 
Luther's  "■  Glaube "  meant  justification  by  belief, 
as  much  as  justification  by  faith,  and  hence  the  in- 
tellect was  made  supreme  with  no  saving  clause 
against  liberty  and  license,  which  in  every  way  in- 
vited the  Antinomian  heresy.  The  authority  of 
Scripture  was  Luther's  animating  principle,  and  this 
he  set  up  against  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and 
utterly  ignored  the  fact  that  it  was  the  heads  of  the 
Church  in  the  second  century,  that  forged  the 
weapon  he  was  now  using  against  her.  Luther  was 
a  singularly  gifted  man,  and  his  powerful  genius  influ- 
enced the  Reformation  everywhere,  but  the  trials  of 
his  declining  years  showed  that  he  was  wanting  in 
mental  equipoise.  He  was  intensely  self-conscious 
and  egotistical,  he  says :  ''  I  am  God's  hammer,"  "  I 
am  Luther."  He  insisted  upon  liberty  of  thought 
and  speech  in  matters  of  religion,  and  placed  con- 
science above  bishop,  priest,  and  law.  Luther  had 
drunk  deeply  of  Augustine's  melancholy,  and  Tau- 
ler's  mysticism,  and  was  supremely  jealous  -of  all 
that  came  or  seemed  to  come  between  the  soul  and 
God.  He  overstrained  the  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith  into  Solfidianism.  He  made  a  sort  of  half- 
hearted apology  for  works,  but  when  he  finds  an 
apostle  disagreeing  with  him,  decides  to  throw  out 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT.  49 

the  writings  of  St.  James  ''■  as  an  epistle  of  straw."  ^ 
It  is  no  more  than  just  to  state  that  th^  merit  of 
"  Works  "  had  been  so  intimately  connected  with  all 
that  was  religious  in  the  past,  such  as  beads,  rosaries, 
the  fifteen  O's,  St.  Agathe's  letters,  purgatory,  sta- 
tions, jubilees,  relics,  bells,  fastings,  and  pardons,  had 
been  so  abused  so  as  to  be  followed  as  a  principle  of 
faith,  there  was  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  in- 
structed, to  resort  to  extremes,  and  when  individuals 
abandoned  Popery,  like  the  pagan  abandonment  of 
idols  in  the  first  century,  they  turned  the  grace  of 
God  into  lasciviousness.  Erasmus  openly  charged 
the  early  reformers  with  lack  of  moral  principle 
which  accounted  to  some  extent  for  the  rapid  victo- 
ries of  the  cause.  It  is  an  open  secret  that,  Carlstadt 
supposing  the  Mosaic  law  to  be  valid  on  the  subject 
of  matrimony,  advised  a  man  to  marry  two  wives,^ 
and  as  late  as  1539,  Luther,  Melanchton  and  Bucer 
connived  at  the  secret  cohabitation  of  Philip  of 
Hesse  with  a  mistress  whom  he  called  his  wife  while 
his  true  wife  was  still  living.^ 

Luther  looked  upon  the  Bible  as  simply  a  record 
of  so  many  facts,  and  was  held  in  the  strictest  sense 
to  be  the  test  of  Scholastic  Theology,  the  Papacy, 

*  "  The  Epistle  of  James  is  contentious,  swelling,  dry,  strawy,  and 
unworthy  of  an  Apostolic  Spirit."    (Praef.  in  Epist.  Jac  in  Ed.  Jen.) 

2  Hardwick  Ref.  370.    Cf.  Bossuet,  variations. 

3  (Ranke,  Ref.  ii.  204.) 


5o  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

and  General  Councils.  The  greatness  of  Luther  for 
the  most  part  lay  in  the  destructive  element  of  his 
work,  in  establishing  a  principle  of  free  interpreta- 
tion, which  if  left  to  the  vagaries  of  every  individual 
who  thinks  he  has  a  mission,  it  falls  under  the  cate- 
gory of  any  other  book,  and  opens  up  a  wide  field 
for  the  very  wildest  absurdities.  When  Calvin  was 
the  dictator  of  the  Genevan  Republic  he  wrote  that 
the  written  oracles  of  God  were  not  of  private  in- 
terpretation, a  judgment  wholly  inconsistent  with 
^Protestant  methods  of  reform.  The  Protestants  of 
Germany,  by  force  of  reaction,  denied  the  existence 
of  a  Church,  and  a  Divinely-appointed  ministiy.  It 
is  presumed  that  Luther  never  made  any  effort  to 
distinguish  between  the  rights  and  privileges  which 
constitute  the  sacerdotal  character  of  Christians 
generally,  and  the  authority  transmitted  from  our 
Lord  to  one  special  order  of  the  Church,  who  offi- 
ciate in  His  name,  for  the  edification  of  the  whole 
body  of  Christians.  He  held  the  democratic  idea  of 
the  natural  priesthood  of  all  believers,  and  in  apply- 
ing his  "  justification  by  faith  "  theory,  there  was  no 
need  of  priest,  visible  church,  or  sacrificial  rite.  He 
saw  no  distinction  between  clergy  and  laity  except 
one  of  office,  as  one  baptism,  one  faith,  one  Gospel, 
make  all  alike  Christians.  '*  Religion,"  he  said,  "  is 
a  matter  simply  between  the  believer  and  Christ. 
Christianity  is  personal,  a  spiritual  power  within  the 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT. 


soul  holding  relations  with  God  alone.  When  the 
promise  of  the  Gospel  is  once  understood  and  ac- 
cepted, what  more  is  necessary  ?  "  Luther  formulated 
the  principle  that,  "  whoever  is  qualified  to  adminis- 
ter the  Sacraments,  becomes  so  in  virtue  of  the  con- 
gregation's choice,  and  when  he  is  deprived  of  ofifice 
becomes  as  other  men."  To  the  official  Luther  ap- 
pointed over  the  vacated  parishes,  and  organized 
assemblies,  he  gave  the  title  Pastor,  as  being  more 
consistent  with  the  character  of  their  work.  Luther 
and  Zwingli  having  renounced  the  priesthood,  they 
had  no  authority  to  confer  orders  upon  any,  and  Me- 
lanchthon  and  Calvin  were  simply  laymen.  If  Christ 
had  a  visible  church  upon  earth  in  the  sixteenth 
century  of  which  any  section  of  Continental  Europe 
could  be  called  a  part,  it  is  certain  that  these  early 
reforming  Protestants  knew  they  were  departing 
from  it,  and  furthermore  it  is  absurd  to  arraign  the 
clergy  with  a  sweeping  immorality  as  justification 
for  the  breach,  and  by  inference  or  silence,  convey- 
ing the  impression  that  the  laity  were  sound,  loyal, 
and  virtuous.  It  was  the  monks  and  clergy  above 
all  others  who  ennobled  the  arts  of  painting,  liter- 
erature,  and  sculpture  in  the  ages  preceding  the  Ref- 
ormation. In  Denmark  Episcopacy  was  violently 
suppressed  as  early  as  1536,  the  king  and  council 
having  already  (1530)  reached  the  conclusion  that  the 
words  ''  bishop,"  and  **  presbyter  "  are  interchange- 


52  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

able  in  Holy  Scripture.  The  qualification  for  pastors 
throughout  the  Saxon  Communion,  it  was  ruled, 
"  that  any  citizen  of  irreproachable  life  and  com- 
petent learning  might  be  selected  without  regard  to 
his  profession  or  employment."  Priest,  however,  is 
an  ofificial  character,  always  on  the  Catholic  side  of 
historical  Christianity  and  it  may  be  well  to  note 
that  primitive  Christians,  believed  in  the  Church  as  a 
visible  organized  society,  the  home  of  Divine  grace, 
the  repository  of  spiritual  truth,  the  organ  of  Divine 
authority,  and  Priest  has  ever  been  associated  with 
this  visible  society,  the  guardian  of  her  inherent 
rights,  the  steward  of  her  mysteries,  whereby  God  is 
pleased  to  keep  the  soul  of  the  believer  in  vital  con- 
tact with  Himself.  If  Sacraments  were  a  divinely  ap- 
pointed means  by  which  grace  is  imparted  to  the 
soul,  it  may  well  accord  with  God's  purpose  to  en- 
trust its  administration  to  a  priest,  who  claims  suc- 
cession from  the  apostles,  through  the  channel  of 
the  historic  Episcopate.  Priests  and  Sacraments 
must,  of  necessity,  stand  or  fall  together. 

Luther  was  the  child  of  destiny,  a  man  of  un- 
daunted courage,  resoluteness,  and  daring,  but  we  are 
persuaded  from  all  he  witnessed  around  him,  ere  his 
voice  was  hushed  in  death,  he  would  gladly  have  re- 
called many  erratic  judgments  which  had  hastily 
unbarred  a  destructive  criticism,  and  irrevocably  ob- 
scured to  countless  multitudes  the  vision  and  hope 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT,  53 

of  immortality.  When  we  ask  ourselves  what  par- 
ticular blessing  Luther  bequeathed  to  his  country- 
men, we  are  reminded  of  Anthony's  speech  over  the 
remains  of  Caesar :  '^  The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after 
them;  the  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones;" 
and  so  it  came  to  pass,  even  before  Luther  had  van- 
ished from  the  scene  of  action,  Protestantism  had 
fallen  into  pitiable  anarchy.  In  less  than  one  year 
after  the  final  rupture  the  Protestants  were  hope- 
lessly divided,  one  section  following  the  rationalist 
Carlstadt,  the  other  still  standing  by  their  chieftain, 
Luther.  In  Luther's  lifetime  sects  began  to  multi- 
ply, and  justified  their  action  on  the  principle  of 
individual  interpretation.  He  had  been  a  cognizant 
witness  of  the  Peasant  War,  which  justified  itself 
upon  religious  grounds,  and  before  he  passed  away 
in  1546  he  beheld  the  gathering  clouds  that  ended 
in  the  Schmalkeldic  War.  Amongst  the  Zwickau 
prophets  was  one  Storch,  a  weaver,  who  had  a  confi- 
dential communication  from  the  Angel  Gabriel ;  and 
another  weaver  named  Thomas ;  and  Stiibner,  a 
student,  had  forsaken  their  labors  for  the  easier 
method  of  supernatural  illumination.  To  these  was 
added  Thomas  Miinzer,  the  real  founder  of  the 
party,  who  asks,  "  Why  such  a  slavish  reverence  for 
what  the  Bible  says  ?  What  is  a  mere  book  ?  Have 
we  not  voices,  impulses,  aye,  revelations  from  the 
Holy  Spirit  dictating  all  we  should  do  ?  " 


54  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

In  1534  the  Anabaptists  (the  legitimate  ancestors 
of  our  modern  Baptists)  took  possession  of  Munster, 
and  pillaged  churches,  desecrated  altars,  established 
a  community  of  goods,  proclaimed  polygamy,  and 
committed  fearful  acts  of  debauchery  and  crime. 
Besides  the  above-mentioned,  there  were  the  follow- 
ers of  John  of  Leyden,  Antinomians,  Libertines, 
Socialists,  Schwenckfeldians,  and  Pantheistic  Mys- 
tics, each  in  their  turn  discovering  something  new. 
Every  imaginable  form  of  free  thought  justified  it- 
self on  Luther's  ultimate  premises,  and  very  soon 
moral  revolt  followed  which  questioned  and  discred- 
ited all  reform.  Every  new  sect,  of  course,  was  a 
source  of  weakness  to  Protestantism,  and  when  the 
Roman  Church  discovered  their  hopelessness  to  win 
them  back,  they  encouraged  dissent,  which  eventu- 
ally added  strength  to  her  cause,  as  it  corroborated 
her  previous  verdict,  that  it  was  merely  a  revolt  in 
the  interest  of  private  judgment.  Protestantism 
legitimately  belongs  to  Germany,  with  a  possible 
extension  to  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  but  in 
strictness  excludes  all  other  countries  and  communi- 
ties. From  the  year  1529  the  Protestants  of  Ger- 
many have  been  known  by  the  name  of  "  Lutherans," 
and  the  Zwinglians  and  Calvinists,  who  originally 
had  nothing  in  common  with  them,  were  called 
**  Reformed."  But  notice  this  latter  title  undergoes 
another  change  when   Calixtus   (i 586-1656)   fused 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT. 


S5 


Calvinists  and  Lutherans  into  a  new  Syncretist  com- 
munion, which  they  set  up  as  the  State  Church  of 
Prussia,  and  assumed  to  themselves  the  official  title 
"  Evangelical,"  and  the  word  Protestant  is  now 
claimed  as  by  heredity  the  peculiar  and  distinct  heri- 
tage of  the  propagandists  of  free  thought  in  Ger- 
many. When  the  Luther  monument  was  unveiled 
at  Worms  on  June  25,  1868,  all  those  of  the 
speakers  who  explicitly  described  themselves  as 
*  Protestants  "  seized  the  opportunity  to  assail  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity  itself.  A 
little  later.  Professor  Bluntschli,  of  Heidelberg,  presi- 
dent of  the  **  Protestanten-Verein,"  speaking  as  an 
unwelcome  guest  at  the  Old  Catholic  Congress  in 
Cologne  on  St.  Matthew's  day,  September  21,  1872, 
asserted  that  no  agreement  in  dogma  or  worship  is 
possible  for  mankind,  not  even  amongst  Protestants 
themselves,  but  only  in  moral  and  ethical  life ;  and 
that  "  every  attempt  to  formulate  the  truth  is  merely 
relative,  and  cannot  be  absolute ;  "  explaining,  in 
making  these  statements,  he  was  expressing  the  ma- 
tured opinions  of  all  German  Protestants.  Luther's 
heritage  to  the  world  is  what  is  represented  at 
Tubingen  to-day,  one  of  whose  disciples  named 
Baur  said  at  Bonn  not  many  years  ago  that  he  had 
discovered  "  the  bondage  to  a  book  was  as  bad  as 
bondage  to  a  church." 

Erasmus  in  his  lifetime  received  the  credit  of  lay- 


56  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

ing  the  ^gg  that  Luther  hatched,  but  he  met  the 
remark,  by  saying,  "■  The  truth  is  I  laid  a  hen's  ^g<gy 
but  Luther  hatched  a  very  different  kind  of  bird." 
Luther's  work  is  applauded  as  a  triumph  of  reason 
over  superstition,  but  Mohler's  symbolism  probably 
sums  up  the  situation  in  one  sweeping  passage  when 
he  says  :  "  The  most  insidious  and  dangerous  form  of 
infidelity  has  grown  up  naturally,  immediately,  and 
irresistibly  out  of  the  very  root  of  Protestantism." 
Froude,  writing  as  a  critic,  out  of  sympathy  with  all 
religion,  said  :  ''  The  intellectual  conflict  which  is 
now  raging  is  the  yet  uncompleted  outcome  of 
Luther's  defiance  of  established  authority."  And 
Maitland,  in  his  introduction  to  the  History  of  the 
Dark  Ages  says : — *'  The  intellectual  history  of 
Europe  is  menaced  with  a  new  phenomenon — a  re- 
ligion without  a  God."  "  Infidelity  has  developed 
into  materialism  and  materialism  propounds  to  the 
world  a  philosophy,  which  shall  explain  and  solve 
the  mysteries  of  the  past,  and  the  future,  which  shall 
guide  the  thoughts  and  wills  of  men,  but  in  which  a 
Creator  has  no  place.  Man,  according  to  this  new 
Gospel,  is  a  combination  of  chemical  and  physical 
atoms,  produced  by  evolution  and  dissolved  by 
death.  The  moral  effect  of  this  creed  is  obvious. 
For  without  God  there  is  no  morality,  and  no  civil- 
ization, no  joy  in  the  past,  no  peace  in  the  present, 
and  no  hope  in  the  future."     What  the  twentieth 


THE  GERMAN  REVOLT, 


57 


century  will  bring  forth  no  one  can  accurately  fore- 
tell. 

Under  the  head  of  "  Protestant  "  in  the  Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica,  vol.  xix.,  it  is  stated  to  be  a  generic 
term  for  members  of  the  churches  which  owe  their 
origin,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  Reformation. 
The  nahie  is  derived  from  the  protest  of  Spires  in 
1529.  Certain  small  communities  of  Christians  older 
than  the  Reformation,  but  agreeing  with  it  in  reject- 
ing the  authority  of  Rome,  are  generally  and  quite 
logically  grouped  as  Protestants,  and  popularly  the 
name  is  considered  to  include  all  Christians  who  do 
not  belong  to  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  Com- 
munions, though  members  of  the  Anglican  Church, 
for  example,  frequently  protest  against  such  a  clas- 
sification as  historically  false  and  personally  obnox- 
ious. The  origin  of  the  word  Protestant,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  nothing  to  do  with  protesting  against 
the  errors  of  Rome,  but  simply  against  decrees  of  a 
Diet  held  in  1529.  At  that  Diet  the  liberty  was  taken 
away  from  the  princes  who  wished  to  arbitrarily 
regulate  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  they  protested 
and  appealed  to  the  emperor  that  the  decree  was 
"  ultra  vires,"  and  maintained  that  a  majority  of 
votes  in  the  diet  would  regulate  a  secular  question, 
but  not  a  spiritual  or  religious  one.  The  decree 
being  made  in  the  interest  of  those  who  wished  to 
keep  everything  as  it  had  been,  and  the  protest  being 


58 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


made  by  those  who  were  desirous  of  reformation,  it 
naturally  happened  that  the  secular  and  clerical 
should  henceforth  bear  the  name  of  Protestant  con- 
currently. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REJECTED   IN   ENGLAND. 

When  we  turn  our  attention  to  the  Mother  Church 
of  England,  we  acknowledge  that  it  was  subject  to 
the  Roman  Pontiff  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  just  as  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  Scotland 
were.  This  condition  was  brought  about  by  a  variety 
of  causes,  which  we  cannot  go  into  fully  here,  but 
they  were,  briefly,  ambition,  crusades,  and  contempt 
for  primitive  legislation.  Out  of  Hildebrand's  con- 
ception of  Imperialism  arising  out  of  the  severance 
of  Church  and  State,  was  evolved  t-he  colossal  theory 
of  expansion,  and  centralization,  which  gradually 
subverted  the  independence  of  the  EngHsh,  Scotch, 
and  Continental  Churches.  The  efforts  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff  to  bring  England  into  subjection 
were  constantly  exercised  from  the  time  of  the  Nor- 
man Conquest,  and  the  protests  of  England  ran 
counter  with  these  efforts,  one  of  the  most  important 
being  that  of  Langton,  (1215),  which  is  embodied  in 
the  first  article  of  ''  Magna  Charta  "  viz. : — "  We 
have  granted  to  God,  that  by  this  our  present  charter 
have  confirmed  for  us  and  our  heirs  forever,  that  the 

59 


6o  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Church  of  England  shall  be  free,  and  shall  have  all 
her  whole  rights  and  liberties  inviolable/* 

The  revival  of  letters  revealed  the  true  character 
of  the  Papacy,  which  had  steadily  and  persistently 
fastened  itself  upon  the  Western  Church,  and  Eng- 
land, seizing  the  opportunity  of  her  king's  divorce, 
threw  off  the  foreign  usurpation  by  legislation,  which 
on  the  continent  and  in  Scotland  was  effected  through 
revolt. 

As  Rome  brought  England  under  her  subjection 
by  degrees,  so  it  was  that  Englishmen  (excepting 
the  brief  halt  in  Mary's  reign)  gradually  threw  off 
all  medieval  excrescences,  being  guided  by  the  pre- 
cedent of  Catholic  canons,  Catholic  councils,  and  the 
Catholic  creeds  of  the  first  five  centuries.  She  truly 
became  a  representative  of  the  Catholic  spirit,  which 
thrilled  the  manhood  of  the  English  nation,  when 
her  noble  martyrs  endured  torture  and  the  flame,  to 
maintain  the  unalterable  faith,  in  its  purest,  simplest 
and  most  unquestionable  integrity.  For  the  sake  of 
clearness,  and  the  sake  of  truth,  we  unreservedly  and 
unequivocally  affirm  that  the  tyrant  Henry  VIII. 
was  neither  the  founder,  nor  reformer  of  the  Church 
of  England,  school  books  and  sectarian  publications 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Henry  VIII.  demanded  that  Convocation  should 
recognize  him  as  the  only  protector  and  supreme 
head  of  the  Church  ('*  Ecclesice  et  Cleri  Anglicani 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND,  6 1 

cujiis  protector  et  supremum  caput  is  est  ").  Convo- 
cation would  not  consent,  and  eventually  only  agreed 
to  the  king's  supremacy  with  the  limitation  "  as  far 
as  the  law  of  Christ  allows  "  {qiia^ttum  per  Christi 
Legem  licet).  Henry  VIII.  wrote  to  Cardinal  Pole 
before  his  death  that  he  had  no  intention  "  of  sepa- 
rating himself  or  his  realm  from  the  unity  of  Christ's 
Church,  but  inviolably  at  all  times  to  keep  and  ob- 
serve the  same,  and  to  redeem  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land out  of  captivity  of  foreign  powers  heretofore 
usurped  therein."  It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  Eng- 
lish reformers  lived  and  labored  to  restore  the  Church 
to  her  ancient  Catholicity  and  inherited  traditions  of 
her  fathers.  This  we  propose  to  investigate  in  order 
to  ascertain  why  the  English  Church,  and  her  Epis- 
copal daughter  in  America  should  not  be  called 
Catholic  instead  of  Protestant.  When  Henry  VIII. 
replied  to  Luther's  ''  Babylonish  Captivity  "  in  1521, 
he  was  considered  the  most  Catholic  prince  in  Chris- 
tendom for  his  defense  of  the  faith.  After  disrup- 
tion had  taken  place  in  the  German  Church,  Henry 
VIII.,  from  motives  of  policy,  tried  to  promote 
intercourse  between  the  English  and  Germans,  but 
his  efforts  resulted  in  utter  failure.  In  1535,  Henry 
again  made  overtures  to  the  lay  princes  of  Germany, 
but  they  refused  to  enter  into  any  compact,  unless 
he  subscribed  the  confession  of  Augsburg,  which  he 
most  emphatically  declined  to  do.    Melanchthon  was 


e2  THE  iVORD  PROTESTANT. 

again  invited  to  England  in  1538,  but  he  did  not 
come.  The  German  representatives  who  did  come 
over  to  England  at  that  time  to  consider  all  questions 
of  reform,  showed  their  partiality  for  the  Augsburg 
Confession  in  the  thirteen  articles  they  drew  up, 
which  were  found  a  few  years  ago.  The  animating 
principle  underlying  these  conferences  was  to  arrive 
at  some  fixed  standard  or  joint  confession  of  faith, 
but  when  Cranmer  and  his  colleagues  came  to  con- 
sider the  sacraments,  they  could  not  agree  in  any- 
thing except  matrimony.  When  the  break  with  the 
Papacy  occurred,  a  sti:ong  party,  either  followers  of 
the  Lollards  or  the  Anabaptists,  holding  revolutionary 
principles,  hove  into  sight,  and  the  ten  articles  of 
1536  were  intended  "to  stablyshe  Christen  quietnes 
and  unitie  amonge  us,  and  to  avoyde  contentious 
opinions."  The  six  articles  of  1539  which  were  hur- 
ried through  Parliament  showed  how  the  lay  mind 
of  England  was  affected  towards  Lutheranism,  and 
its  concomitant  beliefs.  The  necessary  Erudition  or 
King's  Book  of  1543  was  a  protest  against  an  insidi- 
ous Protestantism,  and  it  was  only  after  every  meas- 
ure failed  to  bring  the  foreign  Protestants  into  line 
of  historical  continuity  that  the  English  Church  de- 
termined to  draw  up  her  own  formula  of  doctrine. 
In  1548  Edward  VI.  gave  directions  for  the  com- 
pilation of  a  Liturgy,  and  *'  those  who  had  the  chief 
directing  of  the  weighty  business  were  beforehand 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  63 

resolved  that  none  but  English  heads  or  hands 
should  be  used  therein ;  lest  otherwise  it  might  be 
thought,  and  perhaps  objected,  that  they  rather  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  other  churches,  or  were 
swayed  by  the  authority  of  those  foreign  assistants, 
than  by  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  most  uncorrupted 
practise  of  primitive  times. 

Calvin  had  been  invited  to  the  previous  confer- 
ences in  England  with  Melanchthon,  but  he  answered 
Cranmer  with  fair  words  and  begged  to  be  excused  ; 
but,  note,  when  the  forty-two  articles  were  drawn  up 
in  England  in  1552,  Calvin  now  offers  his  assistance, 
but  the  Archbishop,  who  knew  the  man  by  his 
writings  at  least,  declined  the  offer.  Calvin  then  tried 
to  influence  the  Reform  movement  by  correspond- 
ence with  Edward  VI.,  Cranmer,  and  others.  He 
expressed  himself  freely  to  Cranmer,  and  told  him 
"  that  in  the  service  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  then 
it  stood,  there  remained  a  whole  mass  of  Popery 
which  did  not  only  darken,  but  destroyed  God's 
worship."  ^  The  Church  of  England  also  incurred 
the  displeasure  of  John  Knox,  Calvin's  intimate 
friend,  in  the  year  1 548,  who  declared  that  "  of  Eng- 
land then  he  had  no  plesur,  be  reassone  that  the 
Paipe's  name  being  suppressed,  his  laws  and  corrup- 
tions  remained    in   full    vigor." 

But  such  protestations  did  not  come  with  very 
»  Heylyn,  p.  107. 


64  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

good  grace  from  a  man  who  had  been  punished  as 
an  accessory  after  the  fact  for  the  murder  of  the 
Cardinal  Archbishop,  John  Beatoun.^ 

Knox  was  highly  pleased  that  the  murder  had 
taken  place,  and  expressed  his  admiration  of  the 
deed  as  a  "  Godly  facte." 

The  forty-two  articles  of  1552  retained  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  English  Church  from  German  Prot- 
estantism and  French  Calvinism.  The  year  1552 
marks  the  lowest  point  the  Church  of  England  ever 
reached  in  her  ecclesiastical  legislation.  To  associate 
the  word  (or  thing)  Protestant  with  the  early  reform- 
ers of  the  English  Church  is  to  misrepresent  them. 
Cranmer  looked  upon  the  Mass  as  it  had  been  offered 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  as  an  absolute  falsifica- 
tion of  the  true  doctrine  as  held  by  the  primitive 
Catholic  Church.  In  the  heat  of  conflict,  the  re- 
storers of  the  Church  sometimes  objected  personally 
to  being  called  Catholic  by  the  party  who  would  not 
be  reformed,  yet  they  always  spoke  of  themselves  as 
Catholic,  and  in  the  Unity  of  the  Church.  They 
■made  the  mistake  in  allowing  themselves  to  be  called 
Protestant  by  any  outside  party,  which  oftentimes 
resulted  in  obscuring  their  own  position,  and  con- 
fusing history  which  has  been  pregnant  with  error 
ever  since.     The  word  Protestant,  says  Dixon,  was 

»  See  Calendar  State  Papers,  Scotland,  by  Bain,  Edinb.,  1898. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  65 

first  heard  at  the  beginning  of  Edward  VI. 's  reign, 
wherein  NicoU  in  his  narrative  (p.  'jj')  records,  "  that 
Thomas  Handcock  was  called  the  same  year  which 
was  the  first  of  Edward  VI.  to  be  minister  of  God's 
Word  at  the  town  of  Poole  .  .  .  they  were  the  first 
that  were  called  Protestants  in  that  part  of  England." 
There  was  a  party  of  dissenters  called  "  Known  Men," 
or  just  fast  men  who  met  as  opportunity  offered 
throughout  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  They  were 
evidently  followers  of  the  Lollards,  their  doctrine 
being  taken  from  i  Cor.  xiv.  Is  he  a  known  man  ? 
was  asked  in  much  the  same  way  that  a  modern 
Methodist  asks.  Is  he  a  converted  man  ? 

Throughout  the  reign  of  Edward,  the  Church  of  , 
England  vigorously  opposed  the  term  Protestant  as  ^ 
of  foreign  origin  and  history.  Bishop  Ridley,  writing 
his  brief  declaration  on  the  Lord's  Supper  in  his 
prison  at  Oxford,  1555,  is  the  first  Englishman  to 
use  the  word  Protestant  in  connection  with  any 
party.  He  says  :  *'  My  tongue  and  my  pen,  as 
long  as  I  may,  shall  freely  set  forth  that  which  un- 
doubtedly I  am  persuaded  to  be  the  truth  of  God's 
Word.  And  yet  I  will  do  it  under  this  protestation, 
call  me  Protestant  who  listeth,  I  pass  not  thereof, 
i.  e.  I  care  not  for  it."  In  the  hand  of  the  adversary 
it  will  be  noted  that  the  word  was  a  term  of  reproach, 
just  as  Papist  was  often  used  in  return  of  compli- 
ment. A  more  forcible  illustration  of  how  repugnant 
5 


66  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Protestantism  was  to  Englishmen  occurs  in  Latimer's 
writings.  Dr.  Sherwood  on  one  occasion  accused 
Latimer  of  plagiarism,  and  he  replied  with  his  usual 
vigor,  '*  I  said  nothing  (I  call  God  to  witness  that  I 
lie  not)  which  I  borrowed  from  Luther,  CEcolam- 
padius,  or  Melanchthon,  yet  you  hesitate  not  (such  is 
your  charity)  to  fix  this  charge  upon  me.  If  I  have 
done  this  thing,  may  I  fall  as  I  deserve,  stript  bare 
by  mine  enemies.  But  you  know  not,  methinks, 
what  spirit  you  are  of,  while  you  would  rather  assail 
a  minister  of  God's  Word  witli  your  most  impudent 
falsehood,  than  bear  witness  to  the  truth."  ^  There 
could  be  no  intercommunion  between  Anglican 
clergy  and  Lutheran  Protestants,  because  the  latter 
holding  the  doctrine  of  Ubiquity,  separated  them 
by  a  chasm  as  wide  as  Transubstantiation  separated 
both  from  Rome.  If  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  read 
Ridley's  works,  especially  at  page  i6o,  he  will  find 
that  there  was  not  so  wide  a  difference  on  doctrinal 
points  between  Anglicans  and  Romanists  as  between 
Anglicans  and  Lutheran  Protestants.  Melanchthon 
writing  to  Camerarius,  October  8,1558,  said,  he  viewed 
the  Anglican  who  might  sacrifice  his  life  in  resisting 
the  errors  of  Rome  "  as  a  martyr  to  the  Devil."  The 
Lutherans  retained  a  semblance  of  the  corporal 
presence,  as  the  Apology  for  the  Confession  states  : 
"  In  the  Supper  of  the  Lord  the  Body  and  Blood 
'  Latimer's  Works,  ii.  p.  315. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  6/ 

of  Christ  are  truly  and  substantially  present  together 
with  the  things  which  are  seen,  bread  and  wine,^  but 
there  was  a  wide  difference  between  this  definition 
and  the  doctrine  for  which  Englishmen  shed  their 
blood.  In  one  of  the  disputations  at  Oxford  during 
the  imprisonment  of  Latimer,  the  Prolocutor  said  to 
him,  *'  You  were  once  a  Lutheran,"  and  Latimer  re- 
plied, "  No,  I  was  a  Papist ;  for  I  never  could  per- 
ceive how  Luther  could  defend  his  opinion  without 
Transubstantiation."  ^ 

The  enforcement  of  the  Augsburg  Interim,  a  semi- 
Romanist  regime,  forced  many  foreign  Protestants 
into  England,  where  they  were  courteously  received 
and  recognized  as  honest  men  struggling  for  light. 
Throughout  the  reign  of  Edward,  Anabaptist  refu- 
gees from  Germany  and  the  Netherlands,  fled  to 
England  and  were  allowed  to  congregate  in  London 
and  seaport  towns,  but  on  Mary's  coming  to  the 
throne  in  August,  1553,  all  foreigners  and  sympa- 
thizers decided  that  discretion  was  the  better  part 
of  valor,  and  concluded  to  depart  the  realm.  In 
September,  1553,  the  congregations  under  the  super- 
intendence of  John  A'Laski,  were  counseled  to  de- 
part. A  letter  of  September  1 6th,  probably  written 
by  Cranmerto  the  mayors  of  Dover  and  Rye,  begged 
them  "  to  suffer  all  such  Frenchmen  as  had  been  liven 

'  Pusey,  Real  Presence,  p.  34. 
2  Latimer,  ii.  p.  486. 


68  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

in  London  and  hereabouts  under  name  of  the  Pro- 
testants, to  depart." 

The  work  of  restoration  was  entirely  suspended 
during  Mary's  reign,  who  re-established  the  Pope's 
supremacy,  and  all  previous  acts  in  favor  of  Reforma- 
tion were  repealed ;  but  when  Elizabeth  came  to  the 
throne  in  1558,  the  former  independence  of  the 
Church  was  resumed,  and  she  plainly  intimated  to 
the  foreign  Protestants,  who  importuned  her,  that 
she  would  not  deviate  from  the  course  laid  down  in 
Edward's  reign,  to  bring  about  a  Catholic  reforma- 
tion. 

A  new  Prayer  Book  was  shortly  put  forth  with  all 
the  passages  that  might  give  offense  to  the  Popish 
party  carefully  expunged.  She  ordered  that  sacra- 
mental bread  should  be  made  in  the  fashion  of  wafers, 
and  the  Lord's  table  placed  where  the  altar  stood. 
All  Papists  in  England  attended  their  parish  churches 
until  1570  without  doubt  or  scruple.^ 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  what  possessed  EngHsh- 
men  to  take  shelter  under  the  fostering  care  of 
Zwinglianism  at  Zurich  and  Frankfort,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Mary's  reign,  unless  it  promised  to  be  the 
safest  haven  of  refuge  available  on  the  Continent. 
With  Lutheranism  they  had  nothing  in  common, 
and  the  much-vaunted  liberty  of  conscience  that  had 
echoed  across  the  seas  from  Geneva  was  at  once 
»  Heylyn,  p.  285. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  Qg 

dissipated  when  Calvin  and  his  council  arrested  the 
poor  wayfarer  Servetus,  August  13th,  1553,  for  hold- 
ing a  contrary  opinion  concerning  the  Deity  of 
Christ,  and  condemned  him  to  the  flames  as  a  pesti- 
lential heretic,  made  them  hesitate  to  offer  the  hand 
of  fellowship  to  men  such  as  Calvin,  or  Melanchthon, 
who  applauded  the  act  as  charitable  and  just.^ 

When  Mary  died,  Englishmen  and  others  flocked 
over  from  the  Continent  in  the  hope  of  remodeling 
the  Liturgy  and  improving  the  queen's  government, 
but  they  found  to  their  surprise  that  Elizabeth  was 
sufficiently  strong-minded  to  take  care  of  both.  It 
grieved  them  at  the  heart  to  find  that  their  own 
prayers  might  not  be  made  the  rule  of  worship  in  all 
congregations,  as  they  especially  desired  to  lord  it 
over  the  several  parishes  of  England,  as  Calvin  did 
in  the  presbytery  of  his  Genevan  Church.  Martyr's 
and  Calvin's  efforts  failed,  as  the  queen  had  fixed 
herself  on  her  resolution  of  keeping  the  Church  in 
such  outward  splendor  as  might  make  it  every  way 
considerable  in  the  eye  of  the  world  ;  so  that  they 
must  have  faith  to  remove  a  mountain  before  they 
could  have  hope  enough  to  draw  her  to  them.^ 
The  articles  adopted  in  1 562  were  the  same  as  those 
agreed  upon  in  1552,  excepting  those  relating  to 
Anabaptists,  Millenarians,  etc.,  which  were  now  con- 
sidered unnecessary.  Genevans  and  Zwinglians  were 
»  Dyer's  Life  of  Calvin.  ^  Heylyn,  p.  304. 


7o  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

united  in  thinking  the  XXXIX  Articles  of  1562  to 
have  too  much  of  the  Pope  and  too  little  of  Calvin 
in  them,  and  were  therefore  not  to  be  subscribed  by 
any  who  desired  the  reputation  of  keeping  a  good 
conscience  with  faith  unfeigned.^  Fox,  who  was  a 
sympathizer  with  foreign  Protestants,  and  writing  his 
"  Acts  and  Monuments  "  at  Geneva,  uses  the  word 
Protestant  in  such  a  manner  as  to  show  that  he  did 
not  consider  it  applicable  to  members  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  his  reference  to  the  known  men,  or 
just  fast  men  called  Protestants,  shows  that  they  were 
a  survival  of  the  socialistic  Lollards.^  Bishop 
Grindal  had  favored  the  French  Protestants  in 
Edward's  time,  by  allowing  them  to  have  their  assem- 
bly in  London,  but  when  he  became  Archbishop 
under  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  showed  a  similar  leniency 
towards  schismatics,  by  allowing  them  to  hold  meet- 
ings called  **  Prophesyings,"  she  had  him  suspended 
from  ofifice  and  confined  to  his  house,  by  order  of 
the  Star  Chamber.^ 

There  are  still  two  societies  in  England — the  Dutch, 
in  Austin  Friars,  and  the  French,  which  assemble  in 
the  crypt  of  Canterbuiy  Cathedral,  which  have  ever 
been  separate  from  the  Church  of  England,  and  con- 
clusively proves  that  their  position  all  along  has  been 
that   of   specially  tolerated   dissenters.     In   Keble's 

»  Heylyn,  p.  337.  '  See  Fox,  vol.  iv. 

3  Cardwell's  Annals  of  Ref.  i.  431. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  yi 

preface  to  Hooker,  it  is  stated  that  numbers  had 
been  admitted  to  the  ministry  of  the  Church  of 
England  with  no  better  than  Presbyterian  ordination, 
which,  the  followers  of  Calvin  assert,  fixed  the  seal 
of  validity  upon  their  orders,  as  additional  proof  of 
their  authority  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  administer 
the  sacraments.  Many  of  the  English  laity  had 
looked  upon  the  polity  of  the  foreign  sects  with 
complacency,  and  an  occasional  connivance  at  the 
occupation  of  an  English  benefice  comes  before  us  ; 
but  there  is  yet  one  valid  case  of  open  and  authori- 
tative admission  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  of  any 
foreign  Protestant,  to  cure  of  souls  in  England,  to  be 
placed  before  us.  Whenever  any  man  in  foreign 
orders  was  placed  in  a  benefice,  between  1552  and 
1640,  it  was  done  in  open  defiance  of  Ecclesiastical 
Law.  In  the  preface  to  the  Ordinal  of  the  Prayer 
Book  of  1552,  the  statement  is  there  made,  which  was 
never  repealed,  that  "  It  is  evident  unto  all  men, 
diligently  reading  Holy  Scripture  and  ancient  authors, 
that,  from  the  Apostles'  time,  there  have  been  these 
orders  of  ministers  in  Christ's  Church  :  Bishops, 
Priests,  and  Deacons,  which  ofifices  were  evermore 
held  in  such  reverent  estimation  that  no  man  by  his 
own  private  authority  might  presume  to  execute  any 
of  them,  except  he  were  first  called,  tried,  exam- 
ined, and  known  to  have  such  qualities  as  were 
requisite  for  the  same,  and  also  by  public  prayer. 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


with  imposition  of  hands,  approved  and  admitted 
thereto.  And  therefore,  to  the  intent  these  orders 
should  be  continued,  and  reverently  used  and  esteemed 
in  the  Church  of  England,  it  is  requisite  that  no  man 
(not  being  at  this  present  Bishop,  Priest,  or  Deacon) 
shall  execute  any  of  them,  except  he  be  called,  tried, 
examined,  and  admitted  according  to  the  form  here- 
after following."  This  was  the  law  between  1552 
and  1662.  The  "  Reformatio  Legum,"  which  was 
never  actually  enacted,  shows,  at  least,  the  intent  of 
extreme  reformers  in  Edward  VI. 's  time,  of  which  the 
two  sections  subjoined  have  some  bearing  upon  the 
subject :  I.  De  Haeresibus,  cap.  16,  condemns  as 
heretics  those  who  allege  that  persons  whose  qualifi- 
cations consist  only  in  knowledge  of  Scripture,  and 
claim  possession  of  the  Spirit,  to  teach,  rule,  and 
administer  the  sacraments  in  the  Church  without  a 
lawful  call  or  formal  imposition  of  hands ;  and, 
II.,  De  Ecclesia,  cap.  12,  in  which  the  Bishop  alone 
is  named  as  the  bestower  of  orders.  Between  the 
years  1552  and  1640,  there  were  two  causes  at  work 
in  England  to  lower  respect  for  the  Episcopal  Order. 
The  first  of  these  causes  came  from  Roman  Catholic 
theologians,  who  used  every  endeavor  to  depreciate 
the  character  of  the  Episcopate,  in  order  to  exalt  the 
Papacy,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  extract : 

Q.  An   Episcopatus  est  ordo  ?     Is  the  Episcopate 
an  order  ? 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  73 

R.  Episcopatus  est  verus  ordo  et  verum  et  proprie 
dictum  sacramentum,  specialem  imprimens  characte- 
rem.  Sed  cum  distinctio  ordinum  juxta  S.  Thomam 
(Suppl.  Quaest.  37,  art.  2,  in  Corp.)  accipienda  sit 
secundum  relationem  ad  eucharistiam  sive  conse- 
crandam  sive  distribuendam,  ideo  theologi  episcopa- 
tum  ordinem  distinctum  non  ponunt,  sed  eum  sub 
sacerdotio  comprehendunt,  cum  sacerdotes  et  epis- 
copi  quantum  ad  hoc  pari  gaudeant  potestate."  ^ 
*'  R.  The  Episcopate  is  a  true  order,  and  truly  and 
properly  called  a  sacrament,  impressing  a  special 
character,  but  when  a  distinction  of  orders  (in  works 
of)  S.  Thomas  is  to  be  accepted,  according  to  its 
relation  to  either  the  consecrating  or  the  distributing 
of  the  Eucharist,  therefore  theologians  do  not  regard 
the  Episcopate  as  a  distinct  order,  but  include  it 
under  the  priesthood  since  the  priests  and  the 
bishops  enjoy  equal  power  in  this  respect."  The 
other  source  of  disparagement  came  mostly  from 
ultra  reformers  who  were  desirous  of  securing  as 
many  allies  as  possible  in  the  civil  and  religious 
conflict,  which  they  had  entered  into,  and  the  only 
individuals  to  which  they  could  reasonably  appeal 
was  to  men  who  had  deliberately  rejected  episcopacy. 
Protestantism  was  on  trial,  and  many  remained  in- 
different until  there  was  a  reasonable  prospect  of 
adding  glebes,  abbey  lands,  and  consecrated  treasure 
»  Petri  Dens.  Theologia.— "  Tract,  de  Ordine,"  N.  II.  V. 


74 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


to  their  wealth  of  accumulation.  In  days  when 
papers,  railroads,  and  telegraph  were  unknown  it 
was  an  easy  matter  to  commit  an  irregularity,  or  to 
place  a  favorite  in  a  benefice,  and  the  matter  would 
be  practically  unknown  beyond  a  very  narrow  circle. 
Whittingham,  Calvin's  brother-in-law,  is  a  leading 
instance.  He  had  only  received  Genevan  ordination 
and  through  the  influence  of  Leicester,  Walsingham, 
and  Burghley,  he  was  made  Dean  of  Durham.  Suit 
was  instituted  to  eject  him  from  the  Deanery  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  ''  mer^  laicus,"  but  his  death  oc- 
curring shortly  after  proceedings  had  been  set  on 
foot,  there  never  was  any  formal  decision  handed 
down.  It  established  a  precedent  for  Chief  Justice 
Hobart  in  the  case  of  Whitgift  v.  Barrington  in  1623, 
to  the  effect  that  a  dean  may  be  a  layman,  "  as  the 
Dean  of  Durham,  by  special  license  and  dispensation 
of  the  King."^  Just  as  Henry  VIII.  made  Thomas 
Cromwell,  a  layman,  Dean  of  Wells,  or  a  layman  may 
be  dean  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  When 
Whitgift  became  archbishop  in  1583,  the  question 
was  put  to  him,  "  Whether  there  were  not  sundry 
non-Episcopalian  ministers  officiating  by  permission 
within  his  province  of  Canterbury,"  his  answer  was, 
"  I  know  none  such."  ^  The  case  of  Travers,  who  had 
been  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Antwerp  in  1576, 

1  Godolphin,  Repert.  Juris,  p.  367. 

5  Strype's  Lite  of  Whitgift,  part  iii.  p.  182. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  75 

sought  admission  to  an  English  benefice  on  that 
qualification  in  1584,  and  endeavored  to  place  a 
construction  upon  13  Elizabeth,  cap.  10,  favorable 
to  his  plea.  Whitgift's  characteristic  reply  was : 
"  Unless  he  will  testify  his  conformity  by  subscrip- 
tion .  .  .  and  make  proof  unto  me  that  he  is  a 
minister  ordered  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Church 
of  England,  as  I  verily  believe  he  is  not  ...  I  can 
by  no  means  yield  my  consent  to  placing  him  .  .  . 
in  any  function  of  this  church."  Travers'  "  suppli- 
cation "  was  disallowed.  Lord  Macaulay  in  his 
*'  History  of  England  "  with  the  object  of  disparaging 
the  Church  of  England,  cites  the  case  of  Morrison, 
who  received  Presbyterian  ordination  in  1577,  as 
being  licensed  in  1582  to  officiate,  and  minister  the 
Sacraments  in  England  ;  but  if  this  was  done  by 
Grindal,  or  any  other  bishop  in  England,  it  was 
clearly  an  illegal  act,  as  it  was  as  well  known  in 
England  as  in  Scotland,  that  there  was  no  imposi- 
tion of  hands  in  the  latter  country  between  1560 
and  1592.  Grindal  being  suspended  at  the  time, 
his  vicar-general,  who  granted  Morrison  the  license, 
seems  to  have  been  aware  of  the  illegality,  as  the 
dispensation  contains  this  clause,  "  Quatenus  jura 
regni  patiuntur."  ''  As  far  as  the  laws  of  the  King- 
dom allow."  The  laws  of  the  realm  did  not  author- 
ize any  such  grant,  because  it  was  barred  by  the 
recent  and  operative  clause  of  the  canons  of  1571  : 


7^ 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 


"  Episcopus  neminem,  qui  se  otioso  nomine  Letco- 
rem  vocet,  et  manus  impositionem  non  acceperit,  in 
Ecclesiae  ministerio  versari  patietur."  '^  The  bishop 
will  allow  no  one  to  be  engaged  in  the  ministry  of 
the  Church,  who  (merely)  having  a  reputation  for 
leisure,  calls  himself  a  reader,  and  who  has  not  re- 
ceived the  laying  on  of  hands." 

The  canons  of  1597  prohibit  bishops  from  institut- 
ing any  one  to  a  benefice  unless  ordained  by  them- 
selves, or  bringing  letters  dismissory  from  some  other 
bishop  who  has  ordained  them.  Canon  XXXIX.  of 
1603  is  worded  thus  : — *'  No  bishop  shall  institute 
any  to  a  benefice  who  hath  been  ordained  by  any 
other  bishop,  except  he  first  show  unto  him  his 
letters  of  orders,  etc."  And  again  from  a  letter  of 
orders  granted  by  Archbishop  Bramhall  of  Armagh, 
to  a  gentleman  having  nothing  better  than  Presby- 
terian orders  in  his  diocese,  we  cite  one  clause  which 
shows  the  opinion  of  this  practical  and  gentlemanly 
Christian  :  "  non  annihilantes  priores  ordines  (si  quos 
habuit)  nee  validitatem  aut  invaliditatem  eorum 
determinantes,  multo  minus  omnes  ordines.  Sacros 
ecclesiarum  forensicarum  condemnantes,  quosproprio 
judici  relinquimus."  "  Not  abolishing  the  former 
orders  (if  he  had  any)  nor  determining  their  validity 
or  invalidity,  much  less  condemning  all  the  sacred 
orders  of  the  preaching  churches,  which  we  leave  to 
the  proper  judge."     This  occurred  after  the  restora- 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  77 

tion  in  1660,  and  is  a  pronouncement  of  invalidity 
without  too  harshly  wounding  the  susceptibiHties  of 
the  person  concerned.  Lutherans  and  Calvinists 
have  labored  desperately  to  show  how  much  the 
Church  of  England  is  indebted  to  their  theologians 
for  many  definitions  of  doctrine  to  be  found  in  the 
"  XXXIX  Articles  "  but  we  search  in  vain  through 
this  formula  of  doctrine,  that  had  to  do  with  clergy 
only,  for  any  reference  to  Lutheran  solfidianism,  and 
the  reference  to  predestination  in  Article  XVIL  does 
not  refer  to  Calvin's  doctrine,  but  to  the  teaching  of  the 
schoolmen  on  what  was  called  the  merit  of  congruity. 
Shortly  after  the  event  of  the  Armada,  in  1588, 
when  England  had  elected  to  assist  the  Netherlands 
against  the  King  of  Spain,  there  appeared  a  pam- 
phlet entitled  :  **  A  declaration  of  the  true  causes  of 
the  great  troubles  presupposed  to  be  intended  against 
the  realm  of  England,"  to  which  Francis  Bacon  re- 
plied in  his  ''Observations  on  a  Libel,"  in  1592, 
wherein  the  following  sentence  occurs  :  ''  Touching 
the  divisions  in  our  church  the  libeler  affirmeth  that 
the  Protestantical  Calvinism  (for  so  it  pleaseth  him 
with  very  good  grace  to  term  the  religion  with  us 
established),  is  grown  contemptible  and  detected  of 
idolatry,  heresy,  and  many  other  superstitious  abuses, 
by  a  purified  sort  of  professors  of  the  same  Gospel  ; 
and  this  contention  is  yet  grown  to  be  more  intricate 
by  reason  of  a  third  kind  of  gospelers  called  Brown- 


78 


THE   WORD  PROTESTANT, 


ists  ;  who,  being  directed  by  the  great  favor  of  the 
unholy  Ghost,  do  expressly  affirm  that  the  Protes- 
tantical  Church  of  England  is  not  gathered  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  but  of  Antichrist,  and  that  if  the 
prince  or  magistrate  under  her  do  refuse  or  defer  to 
reform  the  Church  the  people  may  without  her  con- 
sent take  the  reformation  into  their  own  hands,  and 
hereto  he  addeth  the  fanatical  pageant  of  Racket."  ^ 

In  1595,  owing  to  the  influence  that  Calvin's  In- 
stitutes had  on  the  minds  of  certain  of  the  Anglican 
clergy,  touching  the  terrible  doctrines  of  predestina- 
tion, and  reprobation,  nine  articles  were  drawn  up 
at  Lambeth,  under  the  presidency  of  Archbishop 
Whitgift,  but  owing  to  the  good  sense  of  Elizabeth, 
they  were  prevented  from  being  imposed  upon  the 
Church,  as  she  had  decided  to  abide  by  the  settle- 
ment of  1562.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  Elizabeth 
would  not  send  the  prelates  of  the  Church  to  the 
Council  of  Trent,  because  the  Pope  summoned  Eng- 
land as  a  Protestant,  and  not  as  a  Catholic  country .2 

The  Hampton  Court  Conference  of  1605  produced 
no  change  in  the  Church  of  England. 

The  first  and  only  example  in  history  where  any- 
thing like  intercourse  took  place  between  the  Church 
of  England  and  foreign  Protestants  occurred  at  the 
Calvinistic  Synod  of  Dort,  in  1618,  when  James  I.  of 

'  Francis  Bacon's  Works,  vol.  viii.  p.  164,  Longman's  ed.,  1862. 
2  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  by  Aubrey  L.  Moore,  p.  255. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  yg 

England  on  his  own  authority,  as  Macaulay  witness- 
eth,  sent  five  divines  as  an  act  of  courtesy  to  Dort  to 
listen  to  the  men  who  were  about  to  proceed  to 
explain  and  define  God's  sovereignty,  and  Man's 
free  will.  James  had  the  wisdom  to  foresee  that 
the  points  at  issue  between  Arminians  and  Calvinists 
were  soon  to  be  made  the  outcome  of  debate  in 
England  as  well. 

It  will  be  readily  understood  that  James  assumed 
entire  responsibility  for  sending  the  delegates  when 
it  is  known  that  no  convocation  of  either  province 
assembled  in  England  between  1614  and  1621} 

They  went  as  political  emissaries  purely,  and  all 
decrees  of  the  Council  affected  doctrine  only.  If 
they  had  been  there  in  any  true  official  capacity  as 
representatives  of  the  Church,  they  would  have  ex- 
changed ratifications,  and  their  signatures  attached 
like  that  of  a  treaty,  but  nothing  of  the  kind  exists 
that  would  fasten  any  obligation  upon  the  Church  of 
England,  to  accept  the  decrees  of  the  Synod.  The 
king's  instructions  to  the  delegates  are  enumerated 
under  nine  heads,  the  last  but  one  reading  :  "  That 
as  you  principally  look  to  God's  glory,  and  the  peace 
of  those  distracted  churches  ;  so  you  have  an  eye  to 
our  honor,  who  send  and  employ  you  thither,  and 
consequently,  at  all  times  consult  with  our  ambas- 
sador, there  residing,  who  is  best  acquainted  with 
*  Joyce,  Sacred  Synods,  p.  648. 


8o  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

the  form  of  those  countries,  understandeth  well  the 
questions  and  differences  among  them,  and  shall 
from  time  to  time  receive  our  princely  directions,  as 
occasion  shall  require.  Of  the  five  representatives 
that  James  despatched  Dr.  Davenant,  the  divinity 
professor,  was  decidedly  the  leading  spirit,  and 
strongly  inclined  to  Calvinistic  doctrine.  Bishop 
Carleton  was  reputed  as  a  rigid  Calvinist  also,  and 
the  rest  were  moderate  Augustinians.  In  the  dis- 
cussions which  often  lacked  charity  and  candor,  Dr. 
Davenant  restrained  them  from  extravagant  action, 
Dort  was  the  first  national  synod  of  the  Protes- 
tants in  Europe,  and,  as  Robert  Southey  remarked, 
from  that  day  hence  "  the  abominable  doctrine  that 
the  Almighty  has  placed  the  greater  part  of  man- 
kind under  a  fatal  necessity  of  committing  the  of- 
fenses for  which  he  has  predetermined  to  punish 
them  eternally,"  lost  ground.  It,  however,  became 
the  rallying  cry  of  Sectarianism,  which  became  puffed 
up  with  spiritual  pride  in  fancying  that  they  were 
favorites  and  the  elect  of  the  Almighty,  and  claimed 
heaven  and  earth  as  theirs  by  right  of  inheritance. 
In  one  of  the  sessions  at  this  synod  the  "  Belgic 
Confession  of  Faith"  was  brought  in  to  be  sub- 
scribed by  the  Dutch  and  approved  by  the  foreign 
divines.  In  this  confession  it  is  distinctly  asserted 
that  the  ministers  of  Christ  have  all  the  same  char- 
acter, jurisdiction,  and  authority.     This  could  not  be 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  gl 

admitted  by  members  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  Bishop  Carleton  formally  protested  in  the  synod 
against  "the  strange  conceit  of  parity  of  ministers," 
and  afterwards  in  a  conference  told  them  that  the 
cause  of  all  their  troubles  was  in  having  no  bishops. 
To  this  they  replied,  "that  they  heartily  wished 
they  could  establish  themselves  on  the  model  of  the 
Church  of  England,  but  they  had  no  prospect  of 
such  a  happiness;  and  since  the  civil  government 
had  made  their  desires  impracticable,  they  hoped 
God  would  be  merciful  to  them.  They  would  have 
had  bishops  if  they  could.  They  could  not,  because 
none  of  the  Continental  bishops  joined  the  Reforma- 
tion, which  was  almost  entirely  on  the  part  of  the 
laity.  In  England  the  case  was  different,  as  all 
"  orders  and  estates  "  of  men  joined  the  Reforma- 
tion, clergy,  and  laity,  and  so  have  conserved  the 
episcopal  regimen  and  handed  on  the  Apostolic  suc- 
cession. "  The  good  sense  of  the  English,"  says 
De  Maistre,  "  hath  preserved  the  hierarchy." 

After  the  synod  had  closed  and  the  Englishmen 
had  returned  to  their  homes,  the  battle  of  the  five 
points  began.  A  young  and  learned  theologian  at- 
tacked the  Englishmen  who  attended  the  conference 
and  went  so  far  as  to  assert  that  "  the  discipline  of 
the  Church  of  England  was  condemned  in  that  as- 
sembly."    This  called  for  a  reply  from  the  delegates, 

which  was  recently  found  in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
6 


82  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

Oxford,  and  is  printed  in  full  in  Morris  Fuller's  Life 
of  John  Davenant,  London,  Methuen,  1897.  It 
occupies  some  nine  pages,  of  which  four  sections  are 
subjoined : 

'^  A  joint  attestation  of  several  bishops  and  learned 
divines  of  the  Church  of  England,  avowing  that 
her  doctrine  was  confirmed  and  her  discipline  was 
not  impeached  by  the  Synod  of  Dort  " —  .  .  . 
We  answer,  that  in  the  Netherlands,  the  party 
(Armenians)  opposite  to  that  synod,  and  most 
aggrieved  with  the  conclusions  thereof  concerning 
the  points  controverted,  are,  notwithstanding,  as 
vehement  and  resolute  maintainers  of  ministerial 
parity  as  any  that  concluded  or  accepted  the  judg- 
ment of  that  synod.  .  .  .  And  because  two  or 
three  articles  thereof  concerned  Church  Discipline, 
and  avowed  a  parity  of  ministers,  they,  prudently 
foreseeing  that  the  British  divines  would  never  ap- 
prove but  oppose  the  same,  did,  therefore,  provide 
that,  before  the  examination  or  reading  thereof,  pro- 
testation should  be  made  by  the  president  of  the 
synod  that  nothing  but  the  doctrinal  points  were  to 
be  subjected  to  their  consideration  and  suffrages. 
.  .  .  And  consulting  together  what  was  fit  to 
be  done  in  delivering  our  opinions  next  day,  we 
jointly  concluded  that,  howsoever  our  church  disci- 
pline had  not  been  synodically  taxed  nor  theirs 
avowed,  yet  it  was  convenient  for  us,  who  were  as- 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  83 

sured  in  our  consciences  that  their  presbyterial  parity 
and  laical  presbytery  was  repugnant  to  the  disci- 
pline established  by  the  Apostles  and  retained  in  our 
own  church,  to  declare  in  a  temperate  manner  our 
judgment  as  well  concerning  that  matter.  .  .  . 
We,  therefore,  professed  and  declared  our  utter  dis- 
sent in  that  point,  and  further  showed  that  by  our 
Saviour  a  parity  of  ministers  was  never  instituted. 
That  Christ  ordained  twelve  Apostles  and  seventy 
disciples ;  that  the  authority  of  these  twelve  was 
above  this  other ;  that  the  Church  preserved  this 
order  left  by  our  Saviour.  And  when  the  extraor- 
dinary authority  of  the  Apostles  ceased,  yet  their 
ordinary  authority  continued  in  bishops  who  suc- 
ceeded them,  who  were  by  the  Apostles  themselves 
left  in  the  government  of  the  Church  to  ordain  min- 
isters, and  to  see  that  they  who  were  so  ordained 
should  preach  no  other  doctrine.  That  in  an  infe- 
rior degree  the  ministers  who  were  governed  by 
bishops  succeeded  the  seventy  disciples.  That  this 
order  hath  been  maintained  in  the  Church  from  the 
time  of  the  Apostles.  And  herein  we  appealed  to 
the  judgment  of  antiquity  or  any  learned  man  now 
living  if  any  could  speak  to  the  contrary.  .  .  . 
We  humbly  submit  this  and  all  our  other  actions  con- 
cerning our  calling  to  the  judgment  of  our  most 
venerable  Mother,  the  Church  of  England,  from 
whose  sacred  rule  we  vow  that  we  have  not  swerved 


84 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 


nor  any  whit  impeached  her  discipline  or  authorized 
doctrine,  either  abroad  or  at  home. 

Ita  Testamur : 

"  Georgius,  Cicestrensis  Episcopus  (Carleton). 

"  Johannes,  Sarisburiensis  Episcopus  (Davenant.) 

"  Gualtrius  Balcanqual,  Decan  Roff., 

"  Samuel  Ward,  Pub.  Profess.  Theol.  in  Acad. 
Cant,  et  Coll.,  Sid.  Prefect.  Thomas  Goad,  Sacrae 
Theol.  Doctor." 

There  is  at  present  a  painting  in  the  Museum  of 
Antiquities  at  Dort,  by  P.  Weyts,  which  shows  the 
British  deputies,  sitting  apart  in  the  upper  right- 
hand  corner,  as  onlookers  at  the  Synod  of  Dort. 

In  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  just  as  "  Protestant  **  and 
"  Reformed  "  were  opposed  and  contrasted  on  the 
Continent,  so  Protestant  and  "  Puritan  "  began  to  be 
similarly  contrasted  in  England,  and  in  1640  the 
name  was  colloquially  given  to  churchmen.  Pope 
Innocent  wrote  to  his  Nuncio  at  the  Court  of 
Charles  I.:  "Advise  the  clergy  to  desist  from  that 
foolish,  nay,  rather  illiterate  and  childish  custom,  of 
distinguishing  between  the  Protestant  [Episcopal] 
and  Puritan  doctrine."  ^  The  name  Puritan,  in  his- 
tory, as  Gardiner  admits,  is  a  very  difficult  thing  to 
understand.  Francis  Bacon  says,  after  1588  the 
Nonconformists  accepted  it  as  peculiarly  their  own. 

»  British  Critic,  xv.,  70. 


REyECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  85 

Charles  I.  posed  on  certain  coins  of  his  as  the  cham- 
pion of  the  '*  Protestant  Religion,"  and  on  the  scaffold 
itself  he  described  himself  as  a  Protestant.  And 
Laud  himself,  the  bugbear  to  this  day  of  all  Protes- 
tant sects,  in  his  conferences  with  the  Jesuit,  Fisher, 
says :  "  The  Protestants  did  not  get  that  name  by 
protesting  against  the  Church  of  Rome,  but  by  pro- 
testing (and  that  when  nothing  else  would  save) 
against  her  errors  and  superstitions.  Do  but  remove 
them  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  our  protestation 
is  ended,  and  the  separation  too ;  nor  is  protesta- 
tion itself  such  an  unheard-of  thing  in  the  very  heart 
of  religion.  For  the  sacraments,  both  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  are  called  by  your  own 
school,  *'  Visible  signs  protesting  the  faith."  The 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England 
was  settled  in  1662,  from  which,  as  the  preface  to 
our  American  book  states,  we  are  far  from  intending 
to  depart,  in  any  essential  point  of  doctrine,  disci- 
pline, or  worship.  What  is  further,  it  unqualifiedly 
emphasizes  the  separate  existence  of  Dissent.  The 
word  Protestant  is  paradoxical,  and,  as  we  have  seen 
in  the  classics,  was  as  freely  used  to  call  to  witness 
as  to  declare  against,  but  in  modern  usage  it  is 
universally  limited  to  the  one  meaning  of  non-Papal, 
and  may  equally  be  applied  to  the  Trinity  as  the 
Supremacy,  as  both  doctrines  are  professed  by  that 
particular  Church.     The  coming  of  the  Jesuits  into 


86  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

England,  in  1580,  and  the  various  intrigues  and  plots 
which  followed,  the  Marprelate  libels,  and  the 
dreaded  Armada  of  1588,  which  Spaniards  called  a 
crusade,  disposed  the  uneducated  English  as  a  nation 
to  use  a  term  colloquially, which  was  eventually  found 
to  be  misleading  as  it  was  perplexing.  In  the 
most  serious  crisis  of  the  Church  of  England's  his- 
tory, the  lower  House  of  Convocation  deliberately 
repudiated  the  word  "  Protestant,"  which  came  about 
in  this  way :  In  the  first  year  of  William  and  Mary, 
Parliament  (composed  chiefly  of  Dissenters)  desired 
to  take  matters  into  their  own  hands,  and  petitioned 
the  Throne  to  summon  Convocation.  The  House 
of  Commons  protested  against  the  action  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  expressed  the  opinion  that  Convocation 
was  the  proper  place  to  settle  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
Convocation  accordingly  assembled  on  the  21st  of 
November,  1689.  The  bishops  agreed  upon  an 
address  thanking  the  king  for  his  zeal  for  the  Protes- 
tant religion  in  general,  and  the  Church  of  England  in 
particular.  The  Lower  House  refused  to  adopt  this 
language.  The  bishops  desired  them  to  state  the 
ground  of  objection,  the  prolocutor  replied,  that 
the  Church  of  England  was  distinguished  by  its 
doctrines  as  contained  in  the  Articles,  Liturgy  and 
homilies,  and  that  the  term  "  Protestant  Churches  " 
was  equivocal,  since  Socinians,  Anabaptists,  and 
Quakers,  assumed  the  title.     The  bishops  yielded  to 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  8/ 

the  Lower  House,  which  grounded  its  objection  on 
an  apprehension  "  lest  the  Church  of  England  should 
suffer  diminution  in  being  joined  with  foreign  Protes- 
tant Churches."^  As  early  as  1584,  an  attempt  had 
been  made  in  England  to  establish  a  Presbyterian 
system  through  Parliament,and  owing  to  the  aggres- 
siveness of  malcontents,  prohibitory  laws  were  passed, 
which  affected  Roman  Catholics  most  severely.  Rom- 
anism and  Separatism,  it  is  painful  to  record,  (between 
the  millstones  of  innuendo  and  abuse),  at  one  time 
tried  to  crush  the  Church,  one  party  claiming  that  the 
Church  of  England  had  sprung  from  the  crimes  and 
passions  of  a  despot,  and  the  other,  affecting  an 
unconsciousness  of  her  Catholic  antiquity,  proclaimed 
her  an  Act  of  Parliament  Church,  and  was  therefore 
an  unscriptural  and  sinful  institution,  and  as  such 
should  be  destroyed.  But  it  was  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment (I.  William  and  Mary,  chap.  18),  that  gave 
Separatism  a  legal  existence,  which  the  dissenting 
historians,  Messrs.  Bogue  and  Bennett,  call  their 
Magna  Charta.  Up  to  the  time  of  William  and 
Mary,  as  is  quite  obvious,  the  State  of  England  had 
neither  by  act  nor  statute,  accepted  the  title  Protes- 
tant, and  the  Church,  by  her  last  settlement  at  the 
Restoration,  and  confirmed  by  Charles  II. *s  Act  of 
Uniformity,   was  much    less    Protestant   than    any 

'History  of  Convocation,  by  Rev. Thomas  Lathbury,  1842.  Kennet's 
Complete  History  of  England.  Cardwell's  Conferences,  3d  ed. 
P-  450- 


88  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

which  had  legally  subsisted  through  the  previous 
hundred  years.  The  staple  argument  in  favor  of  the 
term  "  Protestant,"  is  founded  on  the  consideration 
that  the  word  occurs  in  certain  Acts  of  Parliament. 
Statute  I.,  William  and  Mary,  chap,  vi.,  requires  that 
the  king,  at  his  coronation,  shall  take  an  oath  {inter 
alia)  to  maintain  **  the  Protestant  Reformed  Religion 
established  by  law."  Again,  the  act  of  Union  with 
Scotland,  1707,  Statute  25,  ratifies  an  Act  passed  at 
the  same  time  with  the  Articles,  by  the  Scottish 
Parliament,  establishing  and  confirming  the  Protes- 
tant religion,  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  the  Scottish  Church  and  its  Presbyterian  Church 
Government.  Also,  in  the  Act  of  Union  with  Ire- 
land, 1800,  it  is  enacted,  "That  the  Churches  of 
England  and  Ireland,  as  now  by  law  established,  be 
united  into  one  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  to  be 
called,  *  The  United  Church  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.*  "  These  statutes  are  the  authorities  ap- 
pointed to  establish  the  term  Protestant  on  a  basis 
of  legal  enactment.  The  oath  tendered  to  Henry  VI., 
Elizabeth,  James  I.,  Charles  I.,  Charles  II.,  and  James 
II.,  ran  as  follows  : 

Archbishop  : — **  Sir  :  Will  you  grant  and  keep,  and, 
by  your  oath,  confirm  to  the  people  of  England  the 
laws  and  customs  to  them  granted  by  the  Kings  of 
England,  your  lawful  and  religious  predecessors; 
and,  namely,  the  laws,  customs,  and  franchises  granted 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND,  89 

to  the  clergy  by  the  glorious  King  St.  Edward,  your 
predecessor,  according  to  the  laws  of  God,  the  true 
profession  of  the  Gospel  established  in  this  king- 
dom, and  agreeing  to  the  prerogatives  of  the  kings 
thereof,  and  the  ancient  customs  of  this  realm  ?  " 

King  : — **  I  grant  and  promise  to  keep  them." 

The  insane  conduct  of  James  II.,  who  endeavored 
to  overthrow  the  constitution  in  Church  and  State, 
threw  the  English  nation  into  a  Protestant  frenzy, 
the  complexion  of  Parliament  already  mentioned, 
and  the  known  sympathies  of  William  of  Orange, 
who  was  willing  enough  to  assimilate  the  English 
Church  to  the  Protestant  Congregations  on  the  Con- 
tinent, it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  the 
change  was  made  in  the  Coronation  Oath  of  Wil- 
liam, which  read  as  follows  : — 

*'  Will  ye  to  the  utmost  of  yor  power  maintaine  ye 
Laws  of  God,  the  true  profession  of  the  Gospell  and 
the  Protestant  Reformed  Religion  Established  by 
Law,  and  will  ye  preserve  to  the  Bishops  and  Clergy 
of  this  Realme  and  the  Church  committed  to  their 
charge,  as  by  Law  do  or  shall  appertaine  to  them  or 
any  of  them." 

Rex  et  Reg.  Separatim  responderunt.  "  All  this 
I  promise  to  do."  ^ 

The  Oath  was  somewhat  expanded,  at  the  Corona- 
tion of  Queen  Victoria,  and  read  as  follows : — 
»  Br.  Museum  MS.,  Lansdowne,  281  fo.  78  6. 


go  •  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Archbishop  : — "  Will  you  to  the  utmost  of  your 
power  maintain  the  laws  of  God,  the  true  profession 
of  the  Gospel,  and  the  Protestant  Reformed  Religion 
established  by  Law  ?  And  will  you  maintain  and  pre- 
serve inviolably  the  settlement  of  the  United  Church 
of  England  and  Ireland,  and  the  Doctrine,  Worship, 
Discipline,  and  Government  thereof,  as  by  law  estab- 
lished within  England  and  Ireland,  and  the  Terri- 
tories thereunto  belonging  ?  And  will  you  preserve 
unto  the  Bishops  and  Clergy  of  England  and  Ireland 
and  to  the  Churches  (Dioceses),  there  committed  to 
their  charge,  all  such  Rights  and  Privileges,  as  by  Law 
do,  or  shall  appertain  to  Them,  or  any  of  Them  ?  " 

Queen  : — ''  All  this  I  promise  to  do." 

The  Oath,  then,  as  it  was  tendered  to  William 
and  Victoria  amounts  to  this,  that  only  one  person 
in  the  whole  British  Empire  is  required  or  expected 
to  regard  the  established  religion  as  Protestant,  and 
that  obligation  arises  from  a  purely  civil  and  political 
enactment,  which  was  intended  to  estop  any  high- 
handed methods  that  had  been  in  fashion  amongst 
the  Stuarts. 

In  the  Coronation  service  of  the  Queen,  following 
the  administration  of  the  Oath,  the  Hymn  Veni 
Creator  is  sung,  and  the  Archbishop  solemnly  blesses 
the  oil,  and  in  laying  his  hands  upon  the  Ampulla 
prays  that  by  his  *'  office  and  ministry,"  the  Queen 
may  be  anointed  with  this  oil  and  consecrated  Queen 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  gi 

of  this  realm,  after  which  the  ring  is  bestowed  with 
these  words :  ^'  Receive  this  ring,  the  ensign  of  Kingly 
dignity,  and  of  defense  of  the  CathoHc  Faith."  The 
celebration  of  the  Eucharist  being  resumed,  the 
Queen  offered  for  her  communion  the  bread  and 
wine  that  were  to  be  consecrated,  over  which  the 
Archbishop  said  the  following :  *'  Bless,  O  Lord,  we 
beseech  thee,  these  thy  Gifts,  and  sanctify  them  unto 
this  holy  use,  that  by  them  we  may  be  made  per- 
takers  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  thine  only  begotten 
Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  fed  unto  everlasting  life  of 
Soul  and  Body,  etc."  As  to  this  whole  question  we 
quote  from  a  letter,  written  by  a  man  absolutely  free 
from  all  suspicion  of  modern  theological  partizan- 
ship,  and  one  of  the  most  philosophic  lay  thinkers 
that  has  ever  graced  the  pages  of  English  literature. 
"  Our  predecessors  in  legislation  were  not  so  irra- 
tional (not  to  say  impious)  as  to  form  an  operose 
ecclesiastical  establishment,  and  even  to  render  the 
State  in  some  degree  subservient  to  it,  when  their 
religion  (if  such  it  might  be  called),  was  nothing  but 
a  mere  negation  of  some  other,  without  any  positive 
idea  either  of  doctrine,  discipline,  worship,  or  morals, 
in  the  scheme  which  they  professed  themselves,  and 
which  they  imposed  upon  others,  even  under  penal- 
ties and  incapacities.  ...  So  little  idea  had 
they  at  the  revolution  of  establishing  Protestantism 
indefinitely,  that  they  did  not*  indefinitely  tolerate  it 


92 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 


under  that  name.  If  mere  dissent  from  the  Church 
of  Rome  be  a  merit,  he  that  dissents  the  most  per- 
fectly is  the  most  meritorious.  For  many  points  we 
hold  strongly  with  that  Church.  He  that  dissents 
throughout  with  that  Church  will  dissent  from  the 
Church  of  England,  and  then  it  will  be  a  part  of  his 
merit  that  he  dissent  with  ourselves ;  a  whimsical 
piece  of  merit  for  any  set  of  men  to  establish. 
.  .  .  A  man  is  certainly  the  most  perfect  Prot- 
estant who  protests  against  the  whole  Christian 
religion.  Whether  a  person's  having  no  Christian 
religion  be  a  title  to  favor,  in  exclusion  to  the  largest 
description  of  Christians  who  hold  all  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  though  holding  along  with  them  some 
errors  and  some  superfluities,  is  rather  more  than 
any  man,  who  has  not  become  recreant  and  apostate 
from  his  baptism,  will,  I  believe,  choose  to  affirm. 
The  countenance  given  from  a  spirit  of  controversy 
to  that  negative  religion  may,  by  degrees,  encourage 
light  and  unthinking  people  to  a  total  indifference  to 
everything  positive  in  matters  of  doctrine ;  and  in 
the  end,  of  practise  too.  If  continued,  it  would 
play  the  game  of  that  sort  of  active,  proselytizing, 
and  persecuting  Atheism,  which  is  the  disgrace  and 
calamity  of  our  time."  In  referring  to  the  Corona- 
tion Oath,  he  says :  ''  The  Oath  as  effectually  pre- 
vents the  King  from  doing  anything  to  the  prejudice 
of  the  Church  in  favor  of  Sectaries,  Jews,  Mahom- 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  93 

etans,  or  plain  avowed  infidels,  as  if  he  should  do 
the  same  thing  in  favor  of  the  (Roman)  Catholics. 
You  will  see  that  it  is  the  same  Protestant  Church,  so 
described,  that  the  King  is  to  maintain  and  commu- 
nicate with,  according  to  the  Act  of  Settlement  of 
the  1 2th  and  13th  of  William  III.  The  act  of  the 
5th  of  Anne,  made  in  prospect  of  the  Union,  is  en- 
titled *  An  act  for  securing  the  Church  of  England  as 
by  law  established.*  It  meant  to  guard  the  Church 
implicitly  against  any  other  mode  of  Protestant  re- 
ligion which  might  creep  in  by  means  of  the  Union. 
It  proves  beyond  doubt,  that  the  legislature  did  not 
mean  to  guard  the  Church  in  one  part  only,  and  to 
leave  it  defenseless  and  exposed  upon  every  other."  ^ 

The  sovereign  of  England  is  crowned  as  monarch 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  which,  of  course,  includes 
Scotland.  It  is  important  to  note  that  the  establish- 
ment of  Presbyterianism  has  been  recognized  since 
1707,  but  the  Coronation  Oath  does  not  recognize 
this  establishment  as  a  church,  nor  does  the  sovereign 
enter  into  any  personal  pledge  for  its  defense  and 
maintenance,  although  there  have  been  six  corona- 
tions since  the  act  of  union  and  seven  since  the 
legislative  overthrow  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in 
1690.2 

Another  shrewd  thinker  and  acknowledged  leader 

*  Edmund  Burke  to  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe,  Jan.  3d,  1792. 
"  See  Church  Quarterly  Review,  January,  1879. 


94  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

amongst  Low  Churchmen  has  expressed  himself  as 
follows : —     . 

''  It  is  not  with  anything  like  a  wish  to  carp  at 
words  that  I  avow  my  ignorance  of  what  is  meant  by 
the  phrase  *  the  Protestant  faith/  '  Protestant '  and 
*  faith  *  are  terms  which  do  not  seem  to  me  to  accord 
together.  The  object  of  *  faith '  is  Divine  truth  ; 
the  object  of  '  Protestant '  is  human  error.  How, 
therefore  can  one  be  an  attribute  of  the  other  ?  "  ^ 

**  Protestant,"  says  Dixon,  "  has  been  rejected 
by  the  English  Church  as  a  title  for  three  reasons. 
First,  it  is  of  foreign  origin  and  history  ;  second,  it  is 
not  found  in  the  formularies  (articles,  canons,  or  hom- 
ilies) of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and,  third,  it  has 
been  adopted  and  taken  to  themselves  by  the  major- 
ity of  sectarian  societies." 

That  the  Church  as  the  Body  of  Christ  is  one,  is 
an  axiom  of  Christian  belief.  There  is  a  great  deal 
said  of  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  and  unity  of  action  in 
the  New  Testament,  and  nothing  of  uniformity  in 
outward  organization  ;  but  we  ask :  Did  the  con- 
ditions and  circumstances  call  for  peremptory  action 
or  expression  in  the  first  beginnings  of  the  Evangel, 
in  this  particular  ?  When  the  religion  of  the  Naza- 
rene  was  persecuted  and  held  in  ill  repute,  it  was 
impossible  for  anything  to  be  done  openly,  and  we 
venture  to  assert  that  had  St.  Paul  been  living  in  the 

»  Henry  Philpotts,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Pastoral  Letter,  1851. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  q5 

sixteenth  century  he  would  have  written  as  freely  to 
condemn  the  spirit  of  division  on  the  continent  and 
in  England  as  he  did  the  Corinthians  for  evils  which 
were  greater,  though  more  easily  corrected. 

In  the  beginning  of  Elizabeth's  reign  the  principle 
involved  in  the  schism  of  the  Separatists  was,  whether 
the  English  Church  is  a  new  one,  or  the  old  Church 
restored?  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Anglo- 
Catholics  fought  and  perished  to  preserve  the  con- 
tinuity and  identity  of  the  old  Church.  The 
Separatists  and  those  who  returned  to  England  im- 
pregnated with  their  doctrines,  wanted  a  new  church 
fashioned  after  the  Swiss  model.  They  looked  upon 
the  English  Church  as  suffering  from  ''arrested 
development,"  as  their  motives  were  revealed  in  the 
attack,  which  shifted  from  the  surplice  to  episcopacy. 
If  bishop  meant  superintendent,  the  Separatist  did 
not  object ;  but  if  bishop  meant  bishop,  it  was 
pure  ''  Papistry."  Through  the  powerful  influence 
which  came  from  abroad,  the  English  Church  had 
almost  abandoned  sacramentalism  ;  but  the  Anglo- 
Catholics  tenaciously  clung  to  sacerdotalism  and  the 
Apostolic  succession.  The  Separatists  hated  both. 
Behind  this  was  the  objection  to  an  "  Established  " 
Church  enforcing  spiritual  sentences  with  the  civil 
sword.     Hence  the  hatred  of  uniformity.^ 

1  Hist.  Ref.,   by  Aubrey  L.  Moore,  p.  269;  Neal's  Puritans  and 
Court -reformers,  i.,  100-102. 


96 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


Christ  and  His  Church  are  one  (Eph.  iv.  4).  And 
herein  arises  the  question  which  has  been  under  dis- 
cussion since  the  sixteenth  century,  as  to  whether 
the  Christian  ministry  originated  by  transmission 
from  above,  or  is  simply  a  development  from  below. 
Is  uninterrupted  transmission  from  those  who  had 
the  power  to  transmit  a  real  essential?  or  can  the 
Church  originate,  at  any  time,  a  new  ministry  whose 
commission  of  authority  should  exceed  or  transcend 
by  way  of  improvement  what  had  already  been  min- 
isterially received  ?  The  Apostles  were  selected  for 
their  special  fitness  to  carry  on  the  work  of  Christ. 
They  received  a  formal  commission  of  authority  for 
government  from  Christ  Himself,  in  token  of  which 
they  were  known  by  the  name  of  Apostles  (St. 
Mark  iii.  14).  The  name  was  commonly  applied  to 
them  while  they  were  under  training  for  the  great 
mission  of  their  lives,  which  was  finally  revealed  to 
them  as  our  Lord  was  about  to  leave  them.  They 
were  supposed  to  know  the  mind  of  our  Lord,  and 
under  the  special  guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
He  had  promised  them  over  and  over  again,  they 
were  surely  the  ones  to  take  the  lead  in  all  things 
pertaining  to  the  flock.  They  were  the  chief  wit- 
nesses to  His  resurrection.  At  the  Jerusalem  con- 
ference the  strongest  in  point  of  character  necessarily 
comes  to  the  front,  but  the  resolutions  of  the  body 
go  forth  with  the  authority  of   the  whole  Church. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  gy 

The  gift  at  Pentecost  substituted  a  spiritual  pres- 
ence, for  Christ's  former  bodily,  and  necessarily 
limited  presence,  whereby  He  is  to  abide  with  His 
Church  until  the  second  advent.  It  is  through  this 
presence  that  Christ  acts  upon  the  body  corporate, 
which  discerns  and  touches  the  invisible  reality  by 
faith. 

Christ  and  His  Church  are  one  in  life  and  action, 
with  faith  and  sacraments  as  the  bond  of  union.  In 
our  giving  to  God  we  offer  praise  and  thanksgiving, 
the  alms  of  our  substance,  the  elements  of  the  bread 
and  wine  as  an  oblation,  and  ourselves,  our  souls  and 
bodies  as  a  unit  of  the  redeemed  creation,  in  ac- 
knowledgment that  God  is  the  giver  and  maker  of 
all.  As  sinners  we  plead  and  continually  offer  this 
service  in  the  spiritual  mystery  of  the  Eucharist, 
which  is  the  continual  memorial  before  the  Father  of 
the  once-offered  and  never-to-be-repeated  sacrifice  of 
His  Son,  in  the  hope  of  satisfaction  and  acceptance. 
Christ  is  the  true  priest,  the  only  real  sacrifice,  and 
the  bread  and  cup  are  the  Church's  ceremonial  iden- 
tification with  Christ  in  His  sacrifice.  If  Christ  is 
priest,  the  whole  Church  is  priestly.  The  law  was 
but  a  shadow  of  the  good  things  to  come.  As  com- 
pared with  non-Christian  humanity,  this  congrega- 
tion of  accepted  sons  and  daughters  is  a  holy  nation, 
a  royal  priesthood.  And  priesthood  in  the  Church,  is 
not  a  thing  over  and  apart  from  the  collective  body, 
7 


98 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


but  is  altogether  pastoral  in  its  character.  The 
priest  is  the  organic  body's  representative,  and  what 
is  done  by  him  is  not  instead  of,  or  for  the  sake  of 
the  whole,  but  rather  that  the  congregation  does  it 
by  and  through  him.  The  Christian  priest  does  not 
offer  an  atoning  sacrifice  on  behalf  of  the  Church,  but 
that  the  Church  through  his  act  is  identified  upon 
earth  with  the  one  sufficient  sacrifice  of  the  atone- 
ment made  by  Christ,  and  ministers  are  priests  be- 
cause personally  consecrated  to  be  active  organs  or 
representatives  in  their  personality  of  that  which  the 
whole  Church  cannot  but  essentially  be.  As  Christ 
was  sent,  so  He  sends  His  representatives,  and  the 
offerer  of  worship  is  Christ's  servant  on  earth,  natu- 
rally, as  church  life  could  never  have  existed  without 
a  duly  commissioned  executive.  This  ministry  of 
the  high  and  heavenly  reality  of  the  eternal  priest- 
hood is  so  exalted  an  honor,  that  no  man  dare  take 
it  unto  himself.  We  can  consider  with  unanimity 
the  forms  of  Christian  ministry  growing  out  of  ordi- 
nary human  needs,  which  the  creation  of  successive 
experiences  and  changes  of  circumstances  called  for, 
and  yet  faithfully  carrying  out  a  divine  plan  in  a 
divinely-appointed  way.  The  evolution  theory  of 
the  sixteenth  century  Separatists  is  characterized  by 
scholars  as  mechanical  and  godless,  and  be  it  said  to 
the  honor  of  our  Anglican  reformers,  in  the  face  of 
destructive  Protestantism,  they  retained  with  delib- 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  gg 

erate  emphasis  the  Christian  "  priesthood/*  as  apos- 
toHc  and  perpetual  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  (  See 
chart,  p.  189.)  In  days  gone  by  it  was  no  uncom- 
mon thing  for  the  clergy  to  hear  the  taunts  of 
ceremony-monger,  Baal  priest,  and  sacerdotal  ape; 
but,  happily,  those  uncharitable  days  have  passed, 
and  sacerdotalism  is  being  scrutinized  with  an  unim- 
passioned  candor  which  it  never  received  before. 
The  term  Sacerdotalism  was  perverted  in  days  when 
controversy  ran  high  to  overcome  in  many  quarters 
a  certain  arrogance  and  assumption  which  to  some 
extent  is  still  combated,  but  it  technically  meant  in 
England  *'  the  legal  doctrine  that  a  benefice  is  the 
freehold  of  the  incumbent  for  the  time  being,"  and 
in  this  sense  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  fundamentals 
of  Christianity.  If  the  doctrine  of  the  ministry 
and  sacraments,  chiefly  amongst  which  stands  the 
tenets  of  Apostolic  Succession,  the  Eucharistic  sacri- 
fice, and  regeneration,  are  untenable,  because  Protes- 
tantism has  rejected  them,  then  the  whole  position  of 
the  Church,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Scripture, 
primitive  creeds,  and  councils,  break  down,  and  our 
formulas  and  standards  of  doctrine  are  indefensible. 
This  is  a  day  of  close  scrutiny  and  patient  inquiry, 
and  Dr.  Sanday,  one  of  the  most  conservative  and 
foremost  of  Greek  scholars,  in  his  "  Conception  of 
Priesthood,"  declares  the  burning  question  to  be. 
Is  the  Christian  minister  a  sacrificing  priest  or  is  he 


lOO  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

not  ?  He  reviews  the  whole  question  already  gone 
over  by  Lightfoot,  Moberly,  and  Hort,  and  declares 
that  the  New  Testament  does  recognize  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  in  the  character  of  a  sacrificing  priest- 
hood. Dr.  Sanday  refers  to  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  xv.  15,  16,  as  probably  the  strongest  text 
on  the  subject,  '*  That  I  should  be  a  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  the  Gentiles,  ministering  the  Gospel 
of  God."  (Revised  Version,  ministering  in  sacrifice.) 
The  Apostle  conceives  himself  standing  before  the 
altar  offering  the  Gentile  churches  for  which  he  is 
responsible  as  an  acceptable  sacrifice  for  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  destined.  The  Sermon  upon 
the  Mount  does  not  reveal  the  fuW  intent  and  pur- 
pose of  Christ's  coming  into  the  world.  The  Jew- 
ish priesthood  performed  mediatorial  offices,  and  were 
therefore  considered  a  sacerdotal  caste,  but  the 
Christian  priesthood  is  not  a  sacrificing  priesthood  in 
this  Old  Testament  sense.  Dr.  Sanday  maintains 
that  the  root  idea  contained  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels, 
St.  John  and  St.  Paul,  is  "  that  the  law  of  the  hfe  of 
Christ  is  dying  in  order  to  live,"  that  had  a  world- 
wide significance,  which  the  Christian  appropriates, 
but  not  in  the  transcendent  sense  in  which  Christ 
died ;  and  if  the  Christian  is  to  be  made  one  with 
Christ  in  His  death,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
ceremonial  expression  of  this  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
Holy  Communion.     Whatever  we  may  think  of  the 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  loi 

method  of  operation,  we  must  all  regard  it  as  the 
one  appointed  ceremonial  means  under  the  New 
Covenant  of  realizing  to  ourselves  the  death  of 
Christ.  This  is  what  St.  Paul  meant  in  i  Corinth- 
ians, X.  i6.  It  denotes  the  bringing  home  to  the 
soul  of  man  the  death  and  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and 
the  pHest  pleads  and  presents  the  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
of  which  the  Eucharist  is  an  image,  enacted  upon 
earth,  by  the  express  institution  of  Christ,  by  whom 
the  sacrifice  was  made.  This  sacrifice  of  Christ  was 
once  made  for  all— an  eternal  act — but  with  an  effect 
that  is  indestructible.^ 

The  early  organization  of  the  Church  took  place 
in  an  orderly  and  methodical  way,  and  was  neither 
the  subject  of  dispute  nor  diffuse  writing.  The 
prudence  with  which  they  proceeded  is  illustrated  in 
establishing  the  Church  at  Antioch,  which  was  long 
delayed,  not  only  because  of  our  Lord's  words  (Matt. 
vii.  6),  but  whether  Jews  or  heathens  they  needed 
much  training  to  fit  them  to  receive  the  Holy  Mys- 
teries of  religion.  The  giving  of  the  keys  to  St.  Peter 
first,  and  afterwards  to  the  whole  of  the  Apostles, 
with  the  promise  of  power  to  bind  and  loose,  and 
lastly  in  the  Upper  Room  on  the  evening  of  the  first 
Easter  day,  Christ  breathed  on  the  Twelve  and  said  : 
"  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost  "  with  power  to  for- 
give and  retain  sins  (St.  John  xx.  22).  When  the 
1 W.  Sanday,  D.D.,  Conception  of  Priesthood,  1898. 


102  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

sacred  number  had  been  broken  by  the  fall  of  Judas 
they  immediately  ordained  Matthias.  The  Twelve 
had  surely  a  special  and  certain  prerogative.  St. 
John  speaks  of  them  as  sitting  on  twelve  thrones 
judging  the  ancient  tribes  of  Israel,  which  ideal 
unity  was  intended  to  symbolize  the  indivisibility  of 
the  new  covenant.  The  Deacons  grew  out  of  the 
most  ordinary  and  natural  causes,  and  were  set  apart 
by  the  Disciples  by  prayer,  and  laying  on  of  hands. 
The  Apostles  were  no  doubt  acting  under  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  this  matter,  carrying  out 
the  larger  Divine  purpose.  The  office  of  Elder  or 
Presbyter,  as  all  scholars  are  fully  agreed,  is  nothing 
else  than  the  standing  office  of  the  Jewish  synagogue, 
transferred  to  the  Christian  Church.  They  confront 
us  for  the  first  time  at  Jerusalem  when  contributions 
are  brought  from  Antioch.  Dr.  Sanday  thinks  that 
the  members  of  a  certain  synagogue  may  have  come 
bodily  to  Christianity,  and  simply  retained  their 
constitution  as  it  was.  And  it  is  most  natural  to 
suppose  that  some  one  holding  the  office  of  Presby- 
ter had  been  converted  to  believe  in  the  Resurrected 
Jesus,  and  so  retained  the  name.  We  cannot  say 
whether  the  Episcopate  grew  by  an  unforced  and 
natural  process,  or  was  a  deliberate  act.  The  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians,  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  the  Epistle 
of  Clement  and  probably  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas, 
speak  of  a  plurality  of  bishops  in  each  church,  and 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND,  103 

often  bishop  and  presbyter  are  terms  applied  to  the 
same  person.  We  know,  however,  that  when  Ignatius 
was  martyred,  11Q-117  A.  D.,  there  was  at  Antioch 
in  Syria,  and  in  the  churches  of  Western  Asia  Minor, 
a  Monarchical  Episcopate  in  the  later  sense  estab- 
lished ;  but  here  as  in  its  origin  great  gaps  of  evidence 
leave  us  to  conjecture  how  the  transition  from  the 
Apostolate  came  about.  The  Episcopate  may  have 
arisen  from  secondary  causes,  but  who  will  say  that 
these  were  not  guided  by  the  finger  of  God,  who  was 
silently,  though  effectively,  carrying  out  His  pur- 
poses. Clement  of  Rome,  whose  name  was  in  the 
Book  of  Life  (Phil.  iv.  3),  shows  that  the  principle  of 
Apostolic  Succession  (although  not  laid  down  ex- 
plicitly in  the  New  Testament,  no  more  than  keep- 
ing of  the  Lord's  day),  undoubtedly  dates  from  the 
Apostles.  An  ancient  Latin  version  of  Clement, 
(Ad.  Cor.  xliv.  1-3)  has  recently  been  discov- 
ered by  Dom.  G.  Morin,  which  reads:  "And  our 
Apostles  knew  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that 
there  would  be  strife  over  the  name  of  the  bishop's 
office.  For  this  cause,  therefore,  having  received 
complete  foreknowledge,  they  appointed  the  afore- 
said persons,  and  afterwards  gave  a  further  injunc- 
tion that  if  they  should  fall  asleep,  other  appointed 
men  should  succeed  to  their  ministration.  Those 
therefore  who  were  appointed  by  them,  or  after- 
wards by  other  men  of  repute  with  the  consent  of 


104  ^^^   WORD  PROTESTANT. 

the  whole  Church,  and  have  ministered  unblameably 
to  the  flock  of  Christ  .  .  .  these  men  we  consider  to 
be  unjustly  deposed  from  their  ministration."  Cle- 
ment seems  to  be  writing  against  intrusion  and  par- 
allels it  to  the  revolt  against  the  Aaronic  priesthood 
(Numb,  xvi.,  xvii).  St.  Clement  regards  the  sacrifice 
and  offering  as  the  act  of  the  whole  Church  per- 
formed through  its  presbyters,  and  to  affirm  that  any 
other  member  of  the  Church,  other  than  her  ordained 
ministers,  are  authorized  to  stand  as  the  Church's 
representative,  to  exercise  the  function  of  her  priestly 
character,  is  neither  to  be  inferred  from  Clement  nor 
any  other  early  Father,  but  is  absolutely  denied  in 
fact. 

The  Didache,  lOO  A.  D.,  says:  The  Christian  con- 
gregation must  not  fail  in  the  perpetual  sacrifice  as 
prophesied  by  Malachi,  week  by  week ;  every  Lord's 
day,  it  must  be  offered  with  regularity — in  purity. 
Ignatius,  110-117  A.  D.,  says:  The  unity  of  the 
bishop  with  the  presbyterate  means  always  Eucha- 
ristic  Unity,  which  is  the  unity  of  the  altar.  Let 
no  one  be  deceived,  he  says,  except  a  man  be  within 
the  altar,  he  is  deprived  of  the  Bread  of  God  (Eph.  v.). 
He  that  is  within  the  altar  is  pure,  that  is  to  say,  he 
that  does  anything  apart  from  the  bishop  and  the 
presbytery  and  the  deacons,  he  is  not  pure  in  con- 
science (Trail,  vii.).  That  ye  may  be  obedient  to 
the  bishop  and  the  presbyters  with  a  mind  that  can- 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  105 

not  be  moved,  breaking  one  bread,  which  is  the 
medicine  of  immortality,  the  antidote  against  death 
(Eph.  XX.).  Be  dutiful  then  to  use  one  Eucharist ; 
for  there  is  one  flesh  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
one  cup  unto  union  of  His  Blood ;  one  Altar,  as  there 
is  one  bishop  with  the  presbytery  and  deacons 
(Philad.  iv.).  That  the  two  doctrines  of  the  real 
presence  and  the  Eucharistic  sacrifice  uniformly  pre- 
vailed throughout  the  universal  Church  does  not 
admit  of  any  dispute,  and  as  early  an  authority  as 
St.  Ambrose,  who  had  been  educated  as  a  lawyer 
under  the  best  masters  of  Rome,  rose  to  eminent 
distinction  at  Milan,  became  a  Christian,  and  event- 
ually archbishop  in  374  A.  D.,  says  that  "  the  ele- 
ments are  transfigured  by  the  mystery  of  the  sacred 
prayer  into  flesh  and  blood,"  (De  Fid.  iv.  124).  His 
Christian  writings  were  at  once  accepted  as  authorities, 
wherein  he  calls  the  Holy  Communion  or  Holy  Eu- 
charist, by  the  name  of  Missa.  The  term  was  used  in 
the  second  and  third  centuries,  but  the  origin  of  the 
word  is  in  dispute,  and  in  the  Western  Church  desig- 
nated the  offering  of  the  Holy  Sacrifice.  *'  Ite  missa 
est  "  occurring  towards  the  end  of  the  Latin  rite  is 
the  most  probable  reason  for  the  name.  The  name 
was  adopted  in  the  reformed  Book  of  1549,  but  was 
dropped  in  the  second  Book  of  1552 ;  yet  the  act  of 
uniformity  which  established  this  book  speaks  of 
the  former  one  "  as  a  very  godly  order  agreeable  to 


I06  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

the  word  of  God,  and  the  primitive  Church,"  and 
condemned  the  changes  made  in  1552  as  due  merely 
to  "  doubts  for  the  fashion  and  manner  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  same,  rather  by  the  curiosity  of 
the  minister  and  mistakers  than  of  any  other  worthy 
cause."  Latimer,  disputing  at  Oxford  in  1554,  said: 
"  I  find  no  great  diversity  in  them ;  they  are  one 
Supper  of  the  Lord."  In  1 567  Archbishop  Parker 
published  a  book  entitled  "  A  Testimonie  of  Anti- 
quitie,  showing  the  auncient  fayth  in  the  Church  of 
England  touching  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and 
Bloude  of  the  Lord,"  etc.  The  Anglo-Saxon  Easter 
Homily  of  Archbishop  ^Ifric,  995  A.  D.,  on  the 
Holy  Eucharist,  was  accepted  by  the  Elizabethan 
bishops  as  sound  doctrine.  One  paragraph  reads : 
"  Once  suffered  Christe  hym  selfe  (Ebrew  x.)  ;  but 
yet  neverthelesse  hys  suffrynge  is  dayle  renued  at 
the  Masse  through  mysterye  of  the  holye  housell." 
This  Homily  is  attested  to  as  sound  doctrine  by  the 
signatures  of  Archbishop  Parker  of  Canterbury  ; 
Archbishop  Young  of  York;  Grindal,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don ;  Pilkington,  Bishop  of  Durham ;  Home,  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  and  ten  other  bishops,  namely  :  Bar- 
low, Scory,  Cox,  Sandys,  Bullingham,  Davies,  Bent- 
ham,  Parkhurste,  Best,  and  Robinson,  nearly  all  pro- 
nounced Low  Churchmen.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  the  two  doctrines  of  Real  Presence  and  Eucha- 
ristic  sacrifice  have  been  vigorously  asserted  by  all 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  107 

the  greatest  names  in  Anglican  theology.  It  is  an 
easy  matter  to  point  out  denunciations  by  illiterate 
men  who  would  attack  everything  under  the  sun  for 
selfish  reasons,  just  as  regeneration  and  conversion 
have  been  misrepresented,  the  former  being  preached 
as  a  soul-destroying  doctrine,  and  the  latter  by  a 
certain  school  preached  as  "  denoting  that  change 
in  the  disposition,  thoughts,  desires,  and  objects 
of  affection  which  takes  place  in  the  heart  of  a 
sinner  when  the  Holy  Spirit  convinces  him  of  his 
sinfulness.  This  is  considered  an  awakening  or 
bringing  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth,  when  they  are 
accordingly  entitled  to  be  known  as  *'  professing  " 
Christians.  All  the  early  reformers  of  the  Church 
of  England  taught  that  regeneration  was  effected  in 
and  by  baptism.  The  article  touching  baptism  in 
those  put  forth  in  1536,  signed  by  the  two  arch- 
bishops, sixteen  other  bishops,  and  many  members 
of  both  houses  of  convocation,  reads  :  "  It  is  offered 
to  all  men,  as  well  infants  as  such  as  have  the  use  of 
reason,  that  by  baptism  they  shall  have  remission  of 
sins,  and  the  grace  and  favor  of  God.  ...  By  the 
Sacrament  of  Baptism  they  do  obtain  remission  of 
their  sins,  the  peace,  and  favor  of  God,  and  be  made 
thereby  the  very  sons  and  children  of  God.  ...  In 
and  by  this  said  Sacrament  which  they  shall  receive, 
God  the  Father  giveth  unto  them  for  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ's  sake  remission  of  all  their  sins,  and  the  grace 


lo8  THE   WORD  PROTESTANT, 

of  the  Holy  Ghost,  whereby  they  be  newly  regen- 
erated and  made  the  very  children  of  God."  ^ 

The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,  1537,  and  the 
Necessary  Erudition,  of  1 543,  express  precisely  the 
same  doctrine.  In  regard  to  conversion  all  our 
reformers  universally  speak  of  sinners  converting 
themselves,  and  turning  to  God,  but  who  will  rise 
up  and  explain  why  the  Low  Church  school  interpret 
the  Scriptures,  touching  on  this  point,  exclusively 
by  the  use  of  the  passive  voice.  Man  is  no  longer 
the  active  agent,  turning  himself,  but  is  represented 
as  the  passive  object,  acted  upon  by  an  external 
agency.  The  English  reformers  never  used  it  in 
this  sense.  Two  or  three  illustrations  will  show 
how  the  Scriptures  have  been  v/rested  from  their 
context  to  support  the  passive  theory.  In  the  dis- 
course following  the  parable  of  the  sower  (St.  Matt, 
xiii.  1 5)"  and  be  converted  "  is  not  in  the  passive  voice 
and  simply  means  to  "  turn  back  or  repent  "  (should 
turn  again).  The  same  occurs  in  the  text  of  St. 
Mark  (iv.  12)  and  St.  Luke  (viii.  12)  which  is  not 
passive  and  means  "  to  turn  or  repent."  In  St.  Luke 
xxii.  31  instead  of  ''art  converted,"  we  should  read 
"  hast  turned  or  repented  "  (when  once  thou  hast 
turned  again).  The  passive  theory  represents  the 
Calvinistic  turn  given  to  the  passages  above  men- 
tioned. Regeneration  after,  and  independently  of 
»  Todd,  Original  Sin,  etc. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND. 


09 


baptism,  was  never  taught  by  our  reformers.  Cran- 
mer's  Homily  of  Salvation,  1547,  is  incorporated  into 
Article  XL  of  the  XXXIX.i 

It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  churchmen  who 
had  adopted  a  loose,  unceremonious  style  of  church- 
manship  to  denounce  the  Prayer  Book  of  1552  as  a 
Mass-book,  while  Calvin  described  it  as  ''  the  leavings 
of  Popish  dregs,"  and  as  '*  trifling  and  childish." 
Many  objections  were  made  to  our  present  Book  as 
virtually  retaining  the  Mass,  and  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  would  defend  the  pure  and  Scriptural 
administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  we  submit  a 
tabular  comparison  of  the  leading  factors  of  three 
offices. 

Thb  Sarum   Missal 
1085. 

Preparation  of  Priest. 

Confession  and  Absolu- 
tion. 

Kyrie  (Nine  times). 

Gloria  in  Excelsis. 

Collects,  Epistle,  and  Gos- 
pel. 

Nicene  Creed. 

Oblation  of  bread  and 
wine  on  the  Altar. 

Secreta  for  acceptance  of 
Oblation. 

Sursum  Corda. 

Preface. 

Sanctus. 

Commemoration  of  Liv- 
ing. 

Consecration  Prayer. 

Commemoration  of  De- 
parted. 

Prayers  of  Humble  Access 
(for  Priest  only  i. 

Communion  of  Priest. 

Communion  of  People 
(kneeling). 


Post-Communion   prayers. 
Blessing  and  dismissal. 


Book  of  Common  Prayer 
1662. 

Preparation  of  Priest. 

Commandments  and  Kyrie 
(ten  times). 

Collects,  Epistle  and  Gos- 
pel. 

Nicene  Creed. 

Oblation  of  bread  and 
wine  on  the  Altar. 

Church  militant  prayer  of 
Oblation  and  of  Com- 
memoration of  living  and 
departed. 

Confession  and  absolu- 
tion. 

Sursum  Corda. 

Preface. 

Sanctus. 

Prayer  of  Humble  Access 
(for  Priest  and  people). 

Consecration  prayer. 

Communion  of  priest. 

Communion  of  people 
(kneeling.) 

Post  Communion  prayers. 

Gloria  in  Excelsis. 

Blessing  and  dismissal. 


Westminster        Direc- 
tory, 
1644. 

Exhortation  of  invitation 
and  warning. 

Seating  of  Communicants 
round  the  table. 

Reading  of  the  words  of 
Institution  as  a  lesson, 
not  as  a  prayer. 

Prayer  (extempore)  of 
thanksgiving  for  mercies 
and  all  means  of  grace, 
and  that  God  may  so 
sanctify  the  ordinance 
that  those  who  eat  and 
drink  may  receive  by 
faith  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ. 

Joint  Communion  of  Min- 
ister and  people,  all 
seated,  with  no  prescrib- 
ed words  of  administra- 
tion. 

Exhortation  after  Com- 
munion. 

Thanksgiving. 


See  Cranmer's  remains,  Latimer's  and  Ridley's  Works. 


no  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  those  who  may 
read  these  lines  that  the  struggle  of  the  Reformation 
in  England  centered  round  the  '*  Eucharist."  The 
dispute  was  not  about  the  thing  itself,  but  about 
the  manner.  It  was  not,  whether  Christ  was  really 
present  in  the  Eucharist,  but  whether  He  was  there 
by  transubstantiation  or  not  ?  Archbishop  Bramhall 
says  : — "  The  Roman  Church  is  not  a  Protestant 
Church,  nor  the  Protestant  Church  a  Roman  Church. 
Yet  both  the  one  and  the  other  may  be  homogeneous 
members  of  the  CathoHc  Church.  Their  difference 
in  essentials  is  but  imaginary."  ^  "  The  Holy  Eucharist 
is  a  commemoration,  a  representation,  an  application 
of  the  all-sufficient  propitiatory  sacrifice  of  the  Cross. 
If  his  [Bishop  of  Chalcedon's]  sacrifice  of  the  Mass 
have  any  other  propitiating  power  or  virtue  in  it 
than  to  commemorate,  represent,  and  apply  the 
merit  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross,  let  him  speak 
plainly  what  it  is.  Bellarmine  knew  no  more  of 
the  sacrifice  than  we."  ^  "  Abate  us  transubstantia- 
tion, and  those  things  which  are  consequent  in 
this  determination  of  the  manner  of  the  Presence, 
and  we  have  no  difference  with  them  on  this  par- 
ticular." ^  "  It  was  not  the  erroneous  opinions  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  but  their  obtruding  them  by  laws 
upon  other  churches,  which  warranted  a  separation."  ^ 

1  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  86.  '  Vol.  ii.  p.  88. 

2  ii.  p.  211.  •*  Vol.  iii.  p.  572. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  i  j  j 

Bishop  Cosin,  who  affiliated  with  members  of  the 
French  Reformed  Church  during  his  exile,  says  :  "  I 
cannot  see  where  there  is  any  real  difference  betwixt 
us  [and  the  Church  of  Rome]  about  this  Real  Pres- 
ence, if  we  would  give  over  the  study  of  contradic- 
tion, and  understand  one  another  aright.  Moldana- 
tus  (De.  Sacr.  p.  143),  after  a  long  examination  of 
the  matter,  concludes  thus  at  last  with  us  all :  "  For 
we  do  not  hold  this  celebration  to  be  so  naked  a 
commemoration  of  Christ's  Body  given  to  death, 
and  of  His  Blood  there  shed  for  us;  but  that  the 
same  Body  and  Blood  is  present  there  in  this  com- 
memoration (made  by  the  Sacrament  of  bread  and 
wine)  to  all  that  faithfully  receive  it :  nor  do  we  say 
it  is  so  made  a  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving, 
but  that,  by  our  prayers  also  added,  we  offer  and 
present  the  death  of  Christ  to  God,  that  for  His 
death's  sake  we  may  find  mercy ;  in  which  respect 
we  deny  not  this  commemorative  sacrifice  to  be  pro- 
pitiatory. The  receiving  of  which  Sacrament,  or 
participating  of  which  sacrifice,  exhibited  to  us,  we 
say  is  profitable  only  to  them  that  receive  it  and 
participate  of  it ;  but  the  prayer  that  we  add  there- 
unto, in  presenting  the  death  and  merits  of  our 
Saviour  to  God,  is  not  only  beneficial  to  them  that 
are  present,  but  to  them  that  are  absent  also,  to  the 
dead  and  living  both,  to  all  true  members  of  the 
Catholic  Church  of  Christ."^ 

1  Notes  on  the  Common  Prayer. 


112  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Henry  Hammond,  one  of  the  most  moderate  of 
English  divines  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  a 
sturdy  champion  against  Rome  and  Geneva,  says: 
"  I  must  confess  I  should  not  have  begun  the  list  as 
he  doeth,  that  'all  Roman  Catholics  believe  and 
reverence  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  as  the  most  sub- 
stantial and  essential  act  of  their  religion  ;  all  Protes- 
tants condemn  and  abhor  it,*  when  it  is  visible  that 
the  Protestants  of  the  Church  of  England  believe 
and  reverence,  as  much  as  any,  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Eucharist  as  the  most  substantial  and  essential  act 
of  our  religion,  and  doubt  not  but  the  word  Missa, 
'  Mass,*  has  fitly  been  used  by  the  Western  Church 
to  signify  it,  and  herein  abhor  and  condemn  nothing 
but  the  corruptions  and  mutilations  which  the 
Church  of  Rome,  without  care  of  conforming  them- 
selves to  the  universal,  have  admitted  in  the  cele- 
bration." 1 

Bishop  Thirwall,  a  man  of  powerful  intellect  and 
vast  learning,  and  decidedly  hostile  to  the  High 
Church  school,  says : 

"  The  Church  of  England  .  .  .  has  dealt  with  this 
subject  in  a  spirit  of  true  reverence,  as  well  as  of 
prudence  and  charity.  She  asserts  the  mystery  in- 
herent in  the  institution  of  the  Sacrament,  but 
abstains  from  all  attempts  to  investigate  and  defend 
it,  and  leaves  the  widest  range  open  to  the  devotional 
'  Preface  to  Despatcher  Despatched. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND, 


feelings  and  the  privafte  meditations  of  her  children 
with  regard  to  it.  And  this  liberty  is  so  large,  and 
has  been  so  freely  used  that,  apart  from  the  express 
admission  of  transubstantiation,  or  of  the  grossly 
carnal  notions  to  which  it  gave  rise,  and  which,  in 
the  minds  of  the  common  people,  are  probably 
inseparable  from  it,  I  think  there  can  hardly  be  any 
description  of  the  Real  Presence  which  in  some  sense 
or  other  is  universally  allowed  that  would  not  be 
found  to  be  authorized  by  the  language  of  most 
divines  of  our  Church,  and  I  am  no-t  aware,  and  do 
not  believe,  that  our  most  advanced  Ritualists  have 
in  fact  outstepped  those  very  ample  bounds."  ^ 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  our  blessed  Lord 
founded  a  society  which  he  called  His  Church,  and 
in  the  most  general  and  comprehensive  sense  in- 
tended it  to  be  a  universal  unity.  The  term 
Catholic  (no  more  than  the  term  Trinity)  is  not  to 
be  found  in  the  New  Testament,  and  when  Ignatius 
wrote,  I  lo  A.  D.,  he  was  well  advanced  in  years, 
with  knowledge  and  experience  of  events  covering  a 
period  of  at  least  one  generation  preceding  the  death 
of  St.  John.  In  the  use  of  the  word  Catholic  the 
Jews  were  more  and  more  impressed  with  the  char- 
acter of  Christ's  religion,  which  was  not  intended  for 
any  one  people,  place,  or  country,  as  Judaism  had 
always  been  a  select  enclosure  divided  off  from  all  the 

'  Bishop  Thirwall's  charge  in  1866,  pp.  97,  98. 


8 


114 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


rest  of  the  world.  Ignatius,  one  of  the  earliest  suc- 
cessors to  St.  Paul  the  Apostle,  began  his  work  at 
Antioch  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  is 
now  Bishop  of  the  third  city  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
the  center  of  the  Gentile  Church,  the  home  of 
Christian  liberty.  Tradition  alone  would  have 
enabled  him  to  conceive  the  right  idea  in  applying 
the  term  "  Catholic  Church "  to  the  regenerated 
body,  the  aggregate  of  all  Christian  congregations, 
by  which  he  means  to  imply  that  the  cohesion  of 
the  churches  would  be  fairly  understood  in  the  title 
Universal.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  title  Catholic 
was  incorporated  into  the  creed  at  the  time  when 
Gnosticism  was  at  its  height.  The  old  Roman 
creed,  which  Harmack,  the  most  advanced  of  the 
liberal  school,  thinks  does  not  date  from  much  be- 
fore 140  A.  D.,  uses  the  term  "  Sanctam  Ecclesiam," 
but  the  Apostle's  Creed,  having  an  origin  apart  from 
Rome,  and  dating  from  not  later  than  160  A.  D., 
uses  the  term  "  Sanctam  ecclesiam  Catholicam." 
The  Church,  from  the  beginning,  maintained  its  in- 
clusiveness,  but  was  bound  to  emphasize  its  exclus- 
iveness  from  necessity,  when  the  Gnostics  attempted 
to  create  a  tradition  and  canon  of  their  own.  The 
Gnostics,  who  numbered  more  than  fifty  sects,  varied 
as  widely  in  their  "  isms  **  and  "■  seons  "  as  sectarian- 
ism does  to-day.  As  the  Catholic  Church,  "  the 
congregation  called  apart  from  the  world  "  by  impli- 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  1 1 5 

cation,  shut  out  the  Gnostic  sects  of  the  second 
century,  and  as  the  Church  expanded  beyond  the 
influence  of  her  early  founders,  it  was  necessary  to 
formulate  more  exact  definitions  to  shut  out  the 
later  Donatism  and  Arianism.  The  defeat  of  Gnosti- 
cism was  the  greatest  miracle  of  early  Christianity. 
The  religion  of  Christ  is  still  on  trial,  and  we  may 
be  said  to  be  passing  through  a  crisis. 

If  sectarian  competition  is  responsible  for  a  waning 
Christian  character,  we  are  as  much  in  need  of  some- 
thing positive  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 
as  they  were  in  the  second,  as  any  compromise  with 
cultured  Gnosticism  which  partook  of  the  curious 
blend  of  Rationalism,  and  Mysticism,  would  have 
resulted  in  headlong  failure  to  orthodox  Christianity. 
Part  of  our  Christian  civilization  is  now  in  a  transi- 
tion state,  passing  over  from  cultured  Protestantism 
to  a  spiritual  nebula,  that  we  venture  to  term  an 
esoteric  Pantheism,  going  under  the  various  names  of 
Spiritualism,  Christian  Science,  Theosophy,  Agnos- 
ticism, etc.,  which  legitimately  and  logically  find 
their  antecedents  in  the  isms  of  the  first  three  cen- 
turies. It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  when  we  empha- 
size Protestantism  for  Protestants,  that  the  canon  of 
the  four  Gospels  was  not  fixed  much  before  140 
A.  D.,  when  critics  like  "  Marcion  "  began  to  make 
distinctions  between  the  true  and  false.  It  was 
the   Church  of  Asia  Minor,  the   center  of   second 


Il6  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

century  Christianity,  seconded  by  the  influence  of 
Rome,  both  of  which  were  guided  by  Scripture  and 
tradition,  that  formulated  Catholic  practise,  and 
fixed  the  earliest  canon  of  the  Apostolic  writings. 
The  New  Testament,  as  we  now  possess  it,  was  not 
fixed  much  before  400  A.  D.  There  was  nothing  to 
prevent  the  Gnostic  sects  of  the  first  three  centuries, 
like  the  Protestant  sects  of  the  last  three,  from 
claiming  the  Scriptures,  and  exclusively  calling  them- 
selves Christians ;  but  when  heathen  opponents 
endeavored  to  hold  Catholic  Christians  responsible 
for  the  practise  and  opinions  of  heretics,  who  claimed 
the  title  of  Christian  in  common  with  them,  orthodox 
Christians  placed  themselves  on  the  defensive.  So, 
too,  with  sectarianism  in  these  latter  days.  The 
Infidel  and  Agnostic  point  to  the  segregated  mass 
of  conflicting  and  contending  brethren  in  contempt, 
endeavoring  to  hold  men  who  profess  the  faith 
as  St.  Vincent  held  it  ('*  that  which  has  been  be- 
lieved everywhere,  always,  and  by  all.  For  that 
is  truly  and  properly  Catholic  which  embraces  almost 
everything  comprehensively.  And  this  will  be  so 
if  we  follow  Universality,  Antiquity,  and  Consent "), 
responsible  for  the  wild  absurdities  professed  all 
around  us  under  the  name  of  "  Protestant."  After 
the  second  century  the  word  Catholic  was  placed 
in  strong  juxtaposition  over  against  heretic.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  visible  units  which  made 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  117 


up  the  concrete  visible  body,  were  as  clearly  dis- 
tinguishable in  the  days  of  Ignatius  as  in  the  days 
of  St.  Cyprian.  "  The  Church  is  called  Catholic," 
writes  St.  Cyril,  of  Jerusalem,  ''  because  she  extends 
throughout  the  whole  world,  from  one  end  of  the 
earth  to  the  other."  ''  Know,"  writes  Nicetas  (post 
Augustinian)  ''  that  this  one  Catholic  Church  is 
planted  in  all  the  world,  and  be  sure  that  you  adhere 
steadfastly  to  her  Communion.  There  are,  it  is  true, 
other  churches  falsely  so  called,  but  you  have  nothing 
in  common  with  them ;  heretical  or  schismatical 
have  ceased  to  be  *  holy  *  churches,  for  their  faith 
and  practise  differ  from  that  which  Christ  com- 
manded, and  His  Apostles  delivered."^ 

The  Catholic  Church  throughout  all  the  world  has 
had  divisions,  and  many  bold  and  able  advocates  of 
theories,  such  as  Cyprian,  Origen,  Augustine,  and 
Anselm  ;  but  she  only  assimilated  such  portions  as 
agreed  with  revealed  doctrine,  which  alone  is  bind- 
ing upon  all.  Individual  opinions  are  never  infallible, 
and  no  Catholic  dogma  can  be  referred  to  any  theo- 
logian as  its  author.  Protestantism  sprang  out  of 
what  was  bad  or  defective  in  the  Church,  but  hostility 
to  evil  has  been  characteristic  of  the  Christian  broth- 
erhood in  all  ages,  and  in  all  countries.  There  has 
always  been  wickedness  in  the  Church,  and  particu- 
larly so  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  often  happened,  too, 
» Caspar!,  Anecdota,  p.  357. 


Il8  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

that  the  highest  ecclesiastics  were  guilty  of  the 
deepest  crimes,  but  it  is  the  vilest  kind  of  calumny 
to  accuse  them  all  of  being  steeped  in  wickedness. 
From  the  days  that  Judas  betrayed  his  Master,  the 
tares  have  flourished,  and  often  smothered  out  the 
wheat.  Luther,  Zwingli,  Calvin,  and  Knox,  set  up 
their  opinions  against  Western  Christendom,  and 
arbitrarily  claimed  to  be  interpreters  of  the  Scripture 
canon.  The  doctrine  of  private  judgment  led  to  the 
introduction  of  Rationalism,  and  is  the  common 
parent  of  the  most  discordant  and  opposite  heresies. 
A  few  illustrations  will  suffice.  In  1877,  the  personal 
influence  of  the  Emperor  William — a  man  of  eighty — 
as  "  Summus  Episcopus,"  prevented  the  Apostles* 
Creed  from  being  struck  out  of  the  Prussian  Liturgy 
by  the  vote  of  the  Consistories,  and  it  was  Guizot's 
influence,  in  1872,  in  the  French  Protestant  Synod, 
that  secured  a  vague  assertion  of  a  supernatural 
element  in  religion,  not,  however,  including  the  Deity 
of  Christ,  by  the  narrow  majority  of  61  to  46.  The 
spirit  of  Protestantism  has  changed  but  little  since 
the  days  of  Luther  and  Calvin.  Calvin  said  that 
"  God  instigates  men  to  the  commission  of  what  is 
evil,  and  that  man's  fall  into  crime  is  ordained  by 
the  providence  of  God."  The  Rev.  E.  T.  Jeffreys 
(Presbyterian),  in  an  address  December  21,  1897, 
said  :  "  Calvinism  is  broader  than  Presbyterianism  ; 
it  is   condensed    Christianity,    and    revealed   truth 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  i  ig 

brought  to  its  highest  evolution."  Dr.  Liggetts,  in 
his  sermon  before  the  Synod  of  Asbury  Park,  October 
1 8,  1898,  said:  "With  faith  and  repentance  we  are 
in  the  Church,  and  all  the  powers  of  hell  or  a 
bigoted  Ecclesiasticism  cannot  put  us  out.  The 
New  Testament  ministry  is  simply  non-sectarian. 
It  is  not  a  ministry  of  priests.  Peter,  Paul,  James, 
John,  Timothy,  and  Titus,  nor  any  of  the  rest,  ever 
claimed  to  be  priests,  and  it  was  not  till  the  third 
century  that  Sacerdotalism  began  to  have  its  spread 
in  the  Christian  Church,  and  Sacerdotalism  to-day  is 
one  of  the  greatest  dangers  to  which  the  Christian 
Church  is  exposed."  The  Rev.  Herrick  Johnson 
(Presbyterian),  of  the  Theol.  Sem.,  Chicago,  in  his 
Bicentennial  Sermon,  in  Philadelphia,  November 
13,  1898,  said:  "The  right  of  private  judgment,  in 
matters  of  religion,  is  inalienable.  The  terms  of 
admission  imposed  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  are 
belief  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  Our  Pres- 
byterian fathers  were  of  opinion  that  our  Blessed 
Lord  had  appointed  officers  to  exercise  discipline. 
Christ  did  not  set  up  a  kingdom  without  regulated 
principles.  There  were  authorized  rulers  of  the  early 
Church,  and  the  government  of  the  New  Testament 
Church  was  a  government  by  Elders.  If  the  Presby- 
terian Church  has  nothing  distinctive  in  faith  and 
government,  then  she  is  guilty  of  schism.  .  .  .  The 
Reformed,  or  Calvinistic  system,  first  of  all,  exalts 


I20  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

God.  This  system  is  the  peculiar  testimony  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  Belief  in  it  has  made  her  two 
and  a  half  centuries  of  no  mean  history.  The  Presby- 
terian Government  is  represented  by  Elders,  as  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people."  The  following  historical 
statements  (without  quoting  authorities)  were  made 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Good,  of  Reading,  before  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  in  Philadelphia,  November  21, 
1898: 

*'  The  first  Protestants  who  settled  in  America 
were  the  Calvinists.  In  1557  a  French  colony  of 
this  denomination  settled  in  Brazil.  In  this  colony 
were  the  first  missionaries  to  the  New  World  and  the 
first  martyrs,  as  some  of  these  colonists  were  thrown 
from  a  rock  to  death  by  hostile  natives  in  South 
America.  The  colonists,  too,  were  the  first  settlers 
in  North  America.  They  formed  a  colony  in  Flor- 
ida in  1567,  and  in  New  England  their  synods  ante- 
dated those  of  the  Congregationalists."  Another  in- 
stance of  historic  interest  was  made  in  an  address 
prepared  by  William  Henry  Roberts,  a  Presbyterian, 
at  the  National  Christian  Citizenship  Convention, 
Washington,  D.  C,  December  14,  1898,  *' On  newly- 
acquired  foreign  possessions."  He  argued  that  the 
Rodman  Catholics  had  no  right  or  title  to  the  Church 
properties  of  Cuba  or  the  Philippines,  because  they 
had  been  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  Spanish 
Government,  and  brought  in  the  Church  of  England 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND,  121 

as  an  illustration  as  follows  :  "  The  same  ground  was 
taken  in  England  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 
Westminster  Abbey,  London,  was  once  a  Roman 
Catholic  place  of  worship,  and  is  now  a  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  because  the  structure  was  paid  for 
by  the  money  of  the  English  nation,  and  the  owner- 
ship was  and  is  in  the  English  people."  Why  the 
author  did  not  use  an  illustration  from  the  passage 
of  Church  property  in  Scotland,  under  the  leadership 
of  Knox  in  1560,  is  significant. 

At  the  annual  session  of  the  Lutheran  Church  held 
in  Philadelphia,  December,  1898,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Seiss, 
on  the  '*  Unity  of  the  Church,"  said :  ''  The  unity  of 
the  Church  does  not  exist  in  undisturbed  affection. 
St.  Paul  presents  the  unity  of  the  Church  as  the  unity 
of  the  spirit,  a  unity  originating  with  and  instigated 
by  the  Holy  Ghost.  All  true  Christians  are  born  in 
the  spirit.  .  .  .  The  true  unity  of  the  Church 
is  inward  and  spiritual."  Rev.  Dr.  Bauslin,  Spring- 
field, Ohio,  at  the  same  synod  said  "  that  Luther 
asserted  the  universal  priesthood  of  all  believers 
and  the  right  of  individual  conscience. 
The  keys  were  not  given  to  Peter  and  his  alleged 
successors,  but  to  the  entire  Church.  Free  thinking 
in  religion  is  not  necessarily  lawless  thinking.  The 
right  of  private  judgment  has  its  wholesome  and 
necessary  denominational  limitations.  A  man  has 
no  right  to  teach  Unitarian  principles  in  a  Lutheran 


122  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

pulpit."  And  Dr.  Krotel,  on  the  subject  of  Church 
authority,  said :  "  That  Ananias  and  Sapphira  and 
others  were  members  of  the  church,  but  not  of 
Christ's  body.  There  cannot  be  an  organization 
without  law  and  authority."  Rev.  J.  A.  W.  Haas, 
of  New  York,  on  the  subject  of  ordination,  said : 
**  The  ministry  is  no  continuation  of  the  Apostolate. 
The  laying  on  of  hands  was  an  Old  Testament  relig- 
ious form.  What  Christ  did  God  did.  The  minis- 
try has  God's  command  and  glorious  promise.  The 
realism  of  the  divine  gift  was  apparently  not  held  by 
Luther.  The  ultimate  principle  of  Protestantism 
and  Romanism,  which  represent  in  themselves  the 
antithesis  of  fact,  are  both  destructive  of  the  true 
principles  of  religion."  The  Rev.  Henry  Frank,  of 
the  Metropolitan  Independent  Church  of  New  York, 
in  a  sermon  of  November  14,  1898,  said :  "Whoso- 
ever has  studiously  observed  the  religious  signs  of 
the  times,  the  apathy  of  the  masses  for  the  pul- 
pit, the  handful  of  congregations  in  the  vast  void 
of  ecclesiastical  auditoriums,  the  pitiful  cry  of  the 
man  of  the  cloth  for  a  hearing,  while  just  across  the 
way  the  man  of  the  *  sawdust '  fills  his  house  to  over- 
flowing, must  agree  with  the  Brooklyn  clergyman 
that  there  is  something  rotten  in  Denmark.  Ram- 
pant sensationalism  is  supplanting  antiquated  earn- 
estness. The  evangelistic  buffoon  who  grins  and 
squeals  and  substitutes    ribald  humor    for    serious 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  123 

eloquence  tickles  the  palate  of  the  multitude  with 
facetiousness  and  palms  off  plagiarisms  for  pop- 
ularity and  platitudes  for  patronage,  is  the  religious 
lion  of  the  hour." — New  York  Herald. 

To  illustrate  the  interest  that  the  secular  press  is 
taking  in  this  matter  we  quote  from  another  leading 
journal.  "  We  believe  that  the  spirit  of  denomina- 
tional strife  and  bitterness,  which  is  so  utterly  at 
variance  with  the  catholicity  of  the  Gospel  has  largely 
monopolized  the  zeal  of  Christians.  We  cannot  get 
around  the  fact  that  the  Church  is  wasting  too  much 
of  its  ammunition  upon  quibbles.  When  it  ought 
to  be  engaged  in  leveling  its  batteries  upon  the 
principalities  of  sin,  it  is  rather  engaged  in  the  pop- 
gun warfare  of  petty  and  insignificant  wrangles  over 
denominational  matters.  Too  much  stress  is  laid 
upon  non-essentials,  and  too  little  stress  laid  upon 
fundamentals ;  and  church  members  are  prone  to  call 
themselves,  Baptists,  Methodists,  and  Presbyterians, 
when  they  ought  to  call  themselves  Christians.  .  .  . 
What  the  Church  needs  is  to  overcome  its  denomina- 
tional jealousies  and  establish  itself  with  one  faith 
and  with  one  hope  upon  the  Rock  of  Ages.  When 
the  Saviour  dwelt  upon  earth  He  laid  the  founda- 
ions  of  only  one  Church  which  He  intended  to  be 
sufficient  for  His  followers  in  all  climes  and  in  all 
ages  ;  but  during  the  eighteen  centuries  which  have 
elapsed  since  the  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 


124 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


among  men,  what  multitudes  of  churches  have 
sprung  up,  each  differing  from  the  other  and  each 
claiming  to  be  the  legitimate  successor  of  the  Church 
which  the  Saviour  estabHshed ;  and  such  division  of 
strength  is  incompatible  with  the  best  results  not 
only  for  the  reason  that  it  prevents  the  Church  from 
concentrating  its  full  power  in  the  effort  to  evangelize 
the  Globe,  but  also  for  the  reason  that  it  tends  to 
obscure  the  fundamental  truths  of  religion.  An  un- 
believer asks,  **  What  if  I  accept  the  faith  which  you 
Christians  offer  ?  Will  I  not  still  be  in  doubt  whether 
to  choose  the  Baptist,  the  Methodist,  or  the  Presby- 
terian method  of  salvation  ?  These  are  pertinent 
questions,  and  they  cannot  be  ignored.  If  Christians 
expect  to  conquer  the  world  they  must  stand  to- 
gether not  only  in  numbers  but  in  common  loyalty 
to  the  same  fundamental  truths  of  religion."  ^ 

The  effort  to  apply  the  name  undenominational 
and  non-sectarian  to  institutions  is  an  attempt  to  get 
rid  of  narrowness,  and  obliterate  sectional  animos- 
ities, by  accepting  the  Bible  as  a  collection  of  in- 
teresting literature,  wherein  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the 
only  accepted  interpreter.  Creeds,  and  formulated 
doctrines  are  set  aside  as  of  human  origin.  All  men 
can  herein  speak  of  Incarnation,  Atonement  and  the 
High  Priesthood  of  Christ,  but  no  mention  is  to  be 
made  of  Church,  Ministry,  or  Sacraments.  And  last 
» Atlanta  Constitution,  Oct.,  1898. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  125 

but  not  least  the  Mormon  Church  which  hedges 
under  the  defense  of  Protestantism,  in  a  book  called 
"  New  Witness  for  God,"  by  Congressman  Roberts, 
in  1895,  says :  '■'  In  the  life  to  come,  a  man  will  build 
and  inhabit,  eat,  drink,  associate,  and  be  happy  with 
friends,  and  the  power  of  endless  increase  will  con- 
tribute, to  the  power  and  dominion  of  those  who 
attain  by  their  righteousness  unto  those  privileges." 
Locke,  on  the  human  understanding  says  :  "  Should 
any  one  a  little  catechize  the  greater  part  of  the 
partizans  of  most  of  the  sects  in  the  world,  he  would 
not  find  concerning  those  matters  they  are  so  zealous 
for,  that  they  have  any  opinions  of  their  own."  ^  The 
Church  in  all  ages  has  been  the  witness  and  keeper 
of  Divine  truth,  and  in  England  through  all  the 
troubled  period  of  her  Reformation  history,  she  de- 
fended the  ministry,  and  provided  for  the  spiritual 
succession  ;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  taking  the 
prayer-book  as  the  connecting  link  between  the 
medieval,  and  the  restored  Church,  not  one  word  or 
sentence  betrays  any  Protestantism.  Our  efforts 
after  reunion  in  this  American  Church  of  ours  have 
met  with  repeated  rebuffs  from  the  Protestant  sects, 
and  just  so  long  as  we  hide  behind  the  subterfuge  of 
silence  by  withholding  our  Catholic  position,  just 
that  long  will  judgment  be  deferred,  confusion  of 
thought  increase,  demoralization  of  forces  multiply, 
1  P.  461. 


126  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

and  an  ever-increasing  unbelief,  which  the  passing 
years  alone  will  bring  home  to  our  stulted  con- 
sciences, as  we  are  obliged  to  confess  our  inability  to 
impress  the  hardened,  disaffected  mass.  The  Evan- 
gelicalism of  the  eighteenth  century  like  its  foster-par- 
ent Latitudinarianism  of  the  seventeenth,  was  a  com- 
promise looking  forward  to  a  grand  ideal  of  "  compre- 
hension," but  experience  has  proved  it  to  be  an  utter 
failure.  In  England  this  same  party,  not  many  years 
ago,  gave  up  one  of  the  Creeds  in  order  to  secure 
allies,  and  in  this  present  year  of  grace,  when  prosecu- 
tions and  litigations  have  failed  against  the  Ritualists, 
hired  rioters  proceed  from  church  to  church,  with 
the  cry  "  no  Popery,"  to  make  demonstrations  in 
order  to  stir  up  prejudice  and  strife,  rather  than  invok- 
ing that  gentle  charity  which  thinketh  no  evil ;  goes 
very  far  to  show  how  thoroughly  unbelief  has  inter- 
penetrated that  unthinking  body  of  the  Church.  The 
religion  of  the  first  centuries  must  of  necessity  have 
been  positive,  otherwise  the  religion  of  the  Christ 
would  never  have  converted  cultured  Gnostics  and 
Pagans  to  the  orthodox  Catholic  faith.  The  com- 
promise of  Catholics  with  Arians,  without  close 
scrutiny  of  the  subtleties  that  lay  behind  it,  almost 
brought  about  the  downfall  of  all  religion,  which  was 
eventually  saved  by  the  uncompromising  Athanasius 
in  the  fourth  century.  Protestant  is  negative,  and  so 
long  as  we  affiliate  with  it  will  reunion  be  deferred. 


REJECTED  IN  ENGLAND.  127 

In  1878,  Dr.  Thorold,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  the 
Junior  Evangelical  Bishop  upon  the  bench,  in  his 
pastoral  said  :  '*  First  amongst  the  features  of  our 
present  distress  I  put  unbelief,  because  it  is  the  first 
and  greatest.  Who  does  not  prefer  a  grave  super- 
stition to  a  dismal  Atheism  ?  Thomas  Aquinas  at 
least  adores  Jesus  Christ.  Comte,  in  what  he  calls 
humanity,  worships  himself.  Indisputably,  unbelief 
is  a  wide  expression,  since  it  begins  where  a  subtle 
Arianism  almost  imperceptibly  parts  company  from 
the  orthodox  formula,  and  ends  by  a  blank  abyss, 
where  modern  thinkers  blandly  inform  us  that 
modern  research  gives  no  glimpse  of  a  personal  God, 
and  where  the  human  spirit,  with  all  its  ineffable 
hopes,  undeveloped  powers,  and  exquisite  forces  of 
joy  and  sorrow,  faith  and  hope,  is  constantly  told 
that  its  short  life,  so  full  of  tragic  interest,  will  be 
but  as  the  brief  sob  of  a  wave  as  it  rises  and  falls  on 
the  shore.  The  outcome  is,  that  conscience  becomes 
a  he,  creation  a  misfortune,  existence  a  bubble,  rea- 
son an  enigma,  and  death — the  supreme  end." 

We  have  borne  the  title  Protestant  for  more 
than  a  century  upon  our  Praj^er-book,  and  while  ad- 
mitting that  we  have  increased  in  numbers  and  in 
influence,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  many  in- 
stances it  has  retarded  our  work  and  position  before 
the  world.  Greeks  and  Roman  Catholics  look  with 
suspicion  upon  the  meaningless  hybrid  that  has  been 


128  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

so  long  associated  with  heretic,  and  question  not 
only  our  principles,  but  our  faith,  to  make  us  as  un- 
comfortable and  odious  as  possible.  It  would  seem, 
when  the  sun  of  a  new  century  is  about  to  dawn, 
with  books  and  libraries  multiplying  all  around  us, 
that  it  is  next  to  impossible  that  either  superstition 
or  ignorance  should  again  overtake  us,  and  the  time 
seems  most  propitious  to  drop  this  narrow,  bigoted, 
vindictive,  unhistorical  title,  "Protestant,"  from  that 
large-minded,  ancient,  Catholic  heritage  we  call  our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ADOPTED    IN   AMERICA. 

When  we  turn  our  attention  to  the  historical  ante- 
cedents of  our  American  Church,  we  find  great  gaps 
in  the  evidence  concerning  the  revolutionary  period, 
and  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  many  modern 
authors,  the  historical  data  leading  up  to  the  national 
organization  of  our  Church  is  still  incomplete.  It 
was  never  lack  of  interest  on  the  part  of  churchmen, 
but  rather  the  sentimental  bias  of  party,  that  many 
a  salient  point  has  been  silenced  or  obscured  on  the 
ground  of  expediency,  which  would  now  lead  to  a 
comprehensive  understanding  of  many  struggles  that 
underlay  the  issues  before  the  Church.  Whig,  Tory, 
and  Jacobite  differentiated  churchmen  in  those 
days  as  widely  as  High  and  Low  and  Broad  does  the 
churchmen  of  the  present.  It  is  incompatible  with 
the  principles  of  good  order  that  churchmen  should 
be  zealous  for  primitive  practise  to  the  utter  disre- 
gard and  neglect  of  primitive  discipline.     As  late  as 

the  year   1877  the  Rev.  Ethan  Allan,  a  specialist  in 
9  129 


I30  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

all  that  pertained  to  the  early  Church  in  Maryland, 
and  after  spending  the  best  part  of  his  life  in  re- 
search, at  the  age  of  eighty-one  wrote  to  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Bishop  Whittingham,  of  Maryland,  under  date 
of  November  20th,  as  follows : 
**  My  dear  Bishop  :  — 

"  It  may  be  that  what  I  write  may  not  be  unac- 
ceptable or  uninteresting  to  you,  though  I  would  not 
be  troublesome.  When  in  the  spirit  I  have  health  I 
still  dabble  in  matters  both  old  and  new,  being  pro- 
voked thereto  by  statements  I  see  in  the  papers. 
The  last  thing  I  have  noticed  is  the  claim  that  lay 
delegates  were  obtruded  into  the  convention  first  in 
the  P.  E.  Church  in  Pennsylvania,  but  that  such  con- 
ventions were  not  held  there  first  our  own  docu- 
ments show  beyond  question.  I  have  consequently 
employed  myself  occasionally  in  putting  together  the 
material  which  I  have  in  the  form  of  journals  of  the 
conventions  of  Maryland,  1780-81-82-83,  showing 
what  was  done  in  Maryland  in  those  years.  .  .  . 
In  looking  over  old  things  I  could  not  help  noticing 
that  Maryland  has  the  high  honor  of  giving  the  first 
adopted  Book  of  Common  Prayer  to  the  American 
Church,  the  committee  being  the  Rev.  Dr.  William 
Smith,  rector  of  the  church  in  Chestertown;  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Wharton,  a  Maryland-born  churchman,  as 
was  the  Rev.  Dr.  White,  still  held  to  be  on  Spesutice, 
and  also  of  giving  the  name  to  the  Church  '  Protes- 


AD  OPTED  IN  AMERICA.  1 3 1 

tant  Episcopal  *  by  the   Rev.  J.  J.  Wilmer,  the  great 
uncle  of  our  two  bishop  Wilmers,"  etc.,  etc. 

Long  before  peace  had  actually  been  concluded, 
signs  were  not  wanting  to  show  that  the  American 
colonies  were  forever  freed  from  the  government  and 
jurisdiction  of  the  mother  country,  and  the  clergy 
who  stood  true  to  their  people  and  church  principles 
began  at  once  to  assert  their  privileges  by  reorganiz- 
ing the  existing  fabric  of  the  Colonial  daughter  into 
the  pre-eminence  of  a  sister  church.  The  Church  of 
the  American  colonies  was  most  populous  in  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland,  both  of  which  had  legal  estab- 
lishments, but  it  was  the  Maryland  clergy,  be  it  said 
to  their  honor,  that  took  the  first  steps  to  readjust 
themselves  to  the  conditions  that  separation  from 
England,  had  necessarily  brought  about.  The  Mary- 
land assembly  took  the  first  step  to  disestablish  the 
Church  in  her ''  Bill  of  Rights,"  which  was  passed  the 
first  Monday  in  October,  1777,  leaving  the  clergy 
without  legal  support,  which  they  had  enjoyed  for 
over  three  generations.  The  III.  section  of  the 
''  Declaration  of  Rights  "  reads :  ''  That  the  inhab- 
itants of  Maryland  are,  entitled  to  the  Common  Law 
of  England,  and  the  trial  by  jury  according  to  the 
course  of  that  law,  and  to  the  benefit  of  such  of  the 
English  statutes  as  existed  at  the  time  of  their  first 
emigration,  and  which  by  experience  have  been 
found   applicable   to   their  local  and  other  circum- 


132  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

stances,  and  of  such  others  as  have  been  since  made 
in  England  or  Great  Britain,  and  have  been  intro- 
duced, used,  and  practised  by  the  courts  of  law  or 
equity ;  and  also  to  all  acts  of  assembly  in  force  on  the 
1st  of  June,  1774,  except  such  as  may  have  since  ex- 
pired or  have  been  or  may  be  altered  by  acts  of  con- 
vention or  this  declaration  of  rights ;  subject,  neverthe- 
less, to  the  revision  of  and  amendment  or  repeal  by 
the  legislature  of  this  State.  And  the  inhabitants 
of  Maryland  are  also  entitled  to  all  property  derived 
to  them  from  or  under  the  charter  granted  by  His 
Majesty,  Charles  the  First,  to  Caecilius  Calvert, 
baron  of  Baltimore."  XXXIII.:  ''That  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  man  to  worship  God  in  such  manner 
as  he  thinks  most  acceptable  to  him.  All  persons 
possessing  the  Christian  religion  are  equally  entitled 
to  protection  in  their  religious  liberty  ;  wherefore  no 
person  ought  by  any  law  to  be  molested  in  his  per- 
son or  estate  on  account  of  his  religious  persuasion 
or  profession,  or  for  his  religious  practise,  unless,  un- 
der color  of  religion,  any  man  shall  disturb  the  good 
order,  peace,  or  safety  of  the  State,  or  shall  infringe 
the  laws  of  morality  or  injure  others  in  their  natural, 
civil,  or  religious  rights  ;  nor  ought  any  person  to  be 
compelled  to  frequent  or  main4:ain  or  contribute, 
unless  on  contract,  to  maintain  any  particular  place 
of  worship  or  any  particular  ministry ;  yet  the 
legislature    may,    in    their    discretion,    lay    a   gen- 


AD  OPTED  IN  AMERICA.  1 3  3 

eral  and  equal  tax  for  the  support  of  the 
Christian  religion,  leaving  to  each  individual  the 
power  of  appointing  the  payment  over  the  money- 
collected  from  him  to  the  support  of  any  particular 
place  of  worship  or  minister,  or  for  the  benefit  of  the 
poor  of  his  own  denomination,  or  the  poor  in  general 
of  any  particular  county ;  but  the  churches,  chapels, 
glebes,  and  all  other  property  now  belonging  to  the 
Church  of  England  ought  to  remain  to  the  Church 
of  England  forever.  And  all  acts  of  Assembly 
lately  passed  for  collecting  moneys  for  building  or 
repairing  particular  churches  or  chapels  of  ease  shall 
continue  in  force  and  executed,  unless  the  legisla- 
ture shall  by  act  supersede  or  repeal  the  same ;  but 
no  county  court  shall  assess  any  quantity  of  tobacco 
or  sum  of  money  hereafter  on  the  application  of  any 
vestryman  or  churchwardens,  and  every  incumbent 
of  the  Church  of  England  who  hath  remained  in  his 
parish  and  performed  his  duty  shall  be  entitled  to  re- 
ceive the  provision  and  support  established  by  the  act 
entitled  :  '  An  act  for  the  support  of  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  this  province,  till  the  Novem- 
ber court  of  this  present  year  to  be  held  for  the 
county  in  which  his  parish  shall  lie,  or  partly  lie,  or 
for  such  time  as  he  hath  remained  in  his  parish  and 
performed  his  duty."  ^ 

In   the   spring    of    1779   the    General    Assembly 
*  Laws,  Constitution  of  Maryland,  etc.,  by  W.  Kilty,  1799. 


134  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

passed  an  act  to  establish  select  vestries,  viz. :  *■'  That 
the  said  vestries  shall,  as  trustees  of  the  parish,  be 
vested  with  an  estate  in  fee  in  all  the  glebe  lands,  as 
also  in  all  churches  and  chapels,  and  the  lands  there- 
unto belonging,  late  the  property  of  the  people  pro- 
fessing the  religion  of  the  Church  of  England."  In 
November  of  the  same  year,  a  supplement  was 
passed  to  the  above  act,  which,  after  reciting  what 
the  declaration  of  rights  contained  on  the  subject, 
enacted  :  "  That  all  property  belonging  to  the  Church 
of  England  shall  be  vested  in  the  select  vestries,  as 
trustees  of  the  parish  to  which  they  belong,  as  a  body 
politic."  An  act  was  passed  December  30,  1779, 
to  empower  the  vestry  of  St.  Paul's  parish,  Baltimore, 
to  exchange  certain  lands  with  Thomas  Harrison  for 
the  use  of  said  parish  and  for  other  purposes  therein 
mentioned.^ 

Section  IV.  reads : — And  be  it  further  enacted, 
that  all  and  every  part  of  the  annual  rents  of  the 
said  glebe  lands  shall  be  forever  hereafter  collected 
yearly  and  every  year  by  the  said  vestry,  and  their 
successors,  and  applied  to  the  use  and  maintenance 
of  a  minister  or  reader  of  the  said  parish  church  in 
the  town  aforesaid,  and  to  no  other  use,  intent,  or 
purpose  whatsoever.^ 

It  was  perfectly  clear  to  the  mind  of  every  As- 

1  Lib.  T.  B.  H.  No.  i,fol.45. 
'  Laws  of  Maryland  by  Kilty. 


Ai)  OPTED  IN  AMERICA.  1 3  5 

semblyman  and  the  thirteen  religious  societies 
within  the  bounds  of  the  State  of  Maryland  at  least, 
what  was  meant  by  '^  all  property  now  belonging  to 
the  Church  of  England  ought  to  remain  to  the 
Church  of  England  forever."  The  effect  of  the 
revolution  necessarily  severed  the  union  which 
bound  the  colonies  to  the  Mother  Church  as  by  con- 
ventional arrangement,  but  the  unity  which  is  after 
God's  law  remained  unaffected.  America  was  freed 
(so  far  as  the  Church  was  concerned)  from  English 
canon  law,  and  control  of  the  Bishop  of  London 
only,  but  spiritual  unity  and  attachment  for  primitive 
Catholic  Christianity  was  held  by  the  major  part  as 
strongly  as  ever.  The  Church  became  as  inde- 
pendent in  ecclesiastical  affairs  as  the  State  had  be- 
come independent  in  civil  affairs.  The  separate  states 
considered  themselves  independent  sovereignties  in 
all  civil  relationships,  and  as  such  they  sought  a 
bond  of  union  in  the  articles  of  confederation  and 
federal  constitution  which  was  finally  adopted 
October,  1789.  The  fathers  of  our  country  by  their 
wise  counsels  aided  in  establishing  our  ecclesiastical 
system.  The  adoption  of  the  constitution  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America  is  contemporary  with  the  adoption  of  the 
federal  constitution.  As  neglect  has  been  often 
charged  tb  the  Church  of  England  in  the  matter  of 
establishing  an  episcopate  in  America,  we  will  briefly 


136  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

refer  to  the  efforts  set  on  foot  from  time  to  time  as 
to  supplying  one,  and  some  of  the  causes  which 
prevented  such  action  from  being  carried  into  effect. 
America  truly  needed  an  episcopate,  if  any  country 
in  the  world  ever  did,  as  the  white  population,  ac- 
cording to  Gwatkin  and  others,  was  computed  to  be 
about  1,260,000  in  1672,  of  which  401,000  were  Epis- 
copalians. Down  to  the  revolution  the  Episcopalians 
were  in  the  majority  in  Maryland,  but  were  out- 
numbered by  sectarians  in  each  of  the  other  states. 
The  first  proposal  for  an  American  episcopate  was 
as  early  as  1673,  when  King  Charles  II.  selected  Dr. 
Alexander  Murray  to  be  bishop  of  Virginia,  but  the 
endowment  being  set  apart  out  of  public  customs, 
the  plan  was  defeated.  The  society  for  the  propa- 
gation of  the  Gospal  made  the  next  attempt  to  send 
a  bishop  in  1703.  Bishop  Butler  contributed  Hber- 
ally  to  this  end,  and  in  1745  the  bishop  of  London 
(Sherlock)  offered  the  king  and  council  10,000 
pounds  if  he  would  send  a  bishop  to  America.  In 
1 7 10  the  S.  P.  G.  had  actually  bought  a  residence  at 
Burlington,  New  Jersey,  for  the  future  bishop.  The 
Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  interfered  with  bring- 
ing over  a  bishop  from  England,  as  a  letter  sent  from 
the  House  of  Representatives,  entirely  made  up  of 
sectarians,  to  Dennis  de  Berdt,  Esq.,  Consul  at  Lon- 
don, January  12,  1768.  "  The  establishment  of  a 
Protestant  episcopate  in  America  is  also  very  zeal- 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA,  137 

ously  contended  for,  and  it  is  very  alarming  to  a 
people  whose  fathers,  from  the  hardships  they  suf- 
fered under  such  an  establishment,  were  obliged  to  fly 
their  native  country  into  a  wilderness,  in  order 
peaceably  to  enjoy  their  privileges,  civil  and  relig- 
ious ;  their  being  threatened  with  the  loss  of  both 
at  once,  must  throw  them  into  a  very  disagreeable 
situation.  We  hope  in  God  such  an  establishment 
will  never  take  place  in  America,  and  we  desire  you 
would  strenuously  oppose  it,  etc.,  etc."  The  legisla- 
ture of  Virginia,  composed  chiefly  of  churchmen,  in 
April,  1 77 1,  through  the  Rev.  Wm.  Camm,  Com- 
missary for  the  Bishop  of  London  in  Virginia,  re- 
quested the  attendance  of  churchmen  at  William  and 
Mary  on  the  fourth  day  of  May  to  consider  an 
American  episcopate.  The  clergy  responded  to  this 
summons  by  requesting  another  meeting  June  4th, 
when  only  twelve  clergy  attended  ;  and  the  proposi- 
tion to  address  the  king  on  the  subject  of  the  epis- 
copate was  negatived.  The  protestators  affirmed, 
however,  that  there  was  no  objection  to  episcopacy 
as  such,  and  maintained  that  they  should  apply  to 
the  Bishop  of  London  for  advice.  Their  reasons 
for  protesting  against  addressing  the  king  were, 
amongst  others :  fourth,  ''  because  the  establishment 
of  an  American  episcopate  at  this  time  would  tend 
greatly  to  weaken  the  connection  between  the 
mother  country  and  her  colonies,  to  continue  their 


138  THE  WORD  PROTESTANl. 

present  unhappy  disputes,  to  infuse  jealousies  and 
fears  into  the  minds  of  Protestant  dissenters,  and  to 
give  ill-disposed  persons  occasion  to  raise  such  dis- 
turbances as  may  endanger  the  very  existence  of  the 
British  Empire  in  America. 

These  erratic  measures  of  the  Virginians  caused  a 
coolness  towards  them  on  the  part  of  the  Northern 
provinces.^  The  first  General  Assembly  of  Maryland 
was  held  at  St.  Mary's,  on  the  loth  day  of  May,  1692, 
and  passed  an  act  "  for  the  worship  of  Almighty 
God  and  the  establishment  of  the  Protestant  religion 
in  the  province."  Under  this  act  thirty  parishes 
were  laid  out  and  established  in  the  province.  Mary- 
land was  ruled  by  a  proprietary  governor,  who 
claimed  exclusive  jurisdiction,  independently  of  the 
Bishop  of  London  (save  only  in  the  case  of  ordina- 
tion), as  any  interference  on  the  bishop's  part  was  an 
encroachment  on  the  State's  authority.  This  ques- 
tion of  prerogative  may  be  considered  the  seed-germ 
of  the  revolution.  The  Rev.  William  Jones,  and 
the  Rev.  William  Addison,  of  Maryland,  wrote 
to  the  Bishop  of  London  of  their  grievances,  as 
follows :  **  That,  inasmuch  as  the  proprietary  had  it 
in  his  gift  to  induct  men  into  livings,  many  of  whom 
being  unlearned  and  scandalous  are  installed.  These 
men,  under  no  jurisdiction,  have  done  what  seemed 
good  in  their  own  eyes,  to  the  great  scandal  and 
1  See  Hawkins'  Missions  of  the  Church  of  England. 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


139 


detriment  of  our  holy  religion.  For,  from  hence 
the  Jesuits  stationed  amongst  us  have  reaped  no 
small  advantage ;  from  hence  the  enthusiasts  and 
schismatics,  rambling  up  and  down  the  provinces, 
seeking  whom  they  may  seduce,  have  too  much  pre- 
vailed on  the  wavering  and  ignorant,  and  many  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  degenerated,  having  contempt  of 
many  of  their  teachers."  On  the  20th  of  September, 
1768,  the  Rev.  Hugh  Neill  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of 
London  of  what  happened  at  the  last  session  of 
Assembly,  "  that  the  ill-behavior  of  the  clergy  de- 
manded some  Church  government,"  and  an  act  was 
drawn  up,  '*  That,  after  such  a  day,  the  governor,  three 
clergymen,  and  three  laymen,  should  be  constituted 
a  Spiritual  Court."  The  bill  passed  both  houses,  but 
Governor  Sharp  refused  to  sign  it.  It  was  at  this 
time  that  the  Rev.  Samuel  Keene,  D.  D,,  the  rector  of 
St.  Luke's  Church,  Queen  Anne  County,  the  learned 
theologian  and  intrepid  defender  of  the  Church,  in 
the  halls  of  Maryland's  civil  government,  prevented 
the  Church  from  being  Presbyterianized  by  its  unhal- 
lowed legislation.^ 

This  Act  of  the  Assembly  alarmed  the  clergy  who 
were  true  to  the  Church,  as  it  would  have  proved  an 
effectual  bar  to  the  introduction  of  Episcopacy, 
which  was  generally  hoped  for  by  the  clergy  of  the 
province.  Previous  to  the  revolution,  Maryland  had 
1  Maryland  Clergy,  by  Rev.  Ethen  Allan 


I40  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

about  fifty-four  clergy  more  or  less  actively  engaged 
in  parochial  work  ;  some  returned  to  England,  and 
many  left  the  State  for  various  reasons,  the  chief  of 
which  was  the  disestablishment  of  the  Church,  which 
deprived  many  of  their  support,  so  that  by  about  the 
end  of  the  revolution  there  were  only  about  twenty- 
five  clergy  left,  who  were  ministering  in  the  churches 
and  chapels  without  any  guarantee  of  support,  and 
which  now  led  to  the  first  three  conventions  of  the 
clergy  and  laity  held  in  the  American  coionies. 

In  the  year  1779,  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith, 
who  had  been  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania for  many  years,  was  attacked  at  home  and 
abroad  by  sectarians,  and  President  Reed  and  the 
Legislature  abrogated  the  college  charter,  on  the 
alleged  ground  of  disloyalty  to  the  new  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  an  undue  devotion  to  the  interests 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Dr.  Smith  was  a  Scotch- 
man, and  graduate  of  Aberdeen  University.  He 
received  orders  in  1753,  and  had  been  specially  hon- 
ored with  a  Doctor's  degree  from  Oxford,  Cam- 
bridge, Aberdeen,  and  Dublin.  He  was  a  man  of 
varied  attainments,  and  was  always  considered  liberal 
and  generous.  He  was  invited  to  preach  the  fast 
sermon  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
on  Thursday,  May  23,  1781. 

When  Dr.  William  Smith  was  stripped  of  his 
honors,  and  left  without  position,  he  quit  the  State, 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  141 

owing  to  opposition  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Consti- 
tutionalist parties,  and  settled  in  Chestertown,  Mary- 
land, where  he  set  in  operation  a  village  school,  out 
of  which  grew  Washington  College,  in  1782.  He 
was  offered  the  rectorship  of  Chestertown  parish,  for 
600  bushels  of  wheat,  which  he  accepted.  He  at 
once  took  a  marked  position  in  the  Church  of  Mary- 
land, and  his  thoughts  immediately  turned  to  assem- 
bling the  churchmen  of  the  State  to  revive  and 
reinstate  the  Church  that  revolution  had  almost  over- 
whelmed. He  invited  the  Rev.  James  Jones  Wilmer, 
the  only  clergyman  besides  himself  in  Kent,  and  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Keene,  the  only  one  remaining  in 
Queen  Anne's  County,  to  meet  with  him  in  Ches- 
tertown, Md.,  Kent  County,  November  9,  1780. 
He  also  invited  sixteen  laymen  from  St.  Paul's, 
Chester,  and  Shrewsbury  parishes,  in  Kent  County, 
and  eight  laymen  from  Queen  Anne's  County,  all  of 
which,  according  to  the  records,  were  present.  The 
Rev.  William  Smith  was  elected  president,  and 
the  Rev.  J.  J.  Wilmer  was  appointed  secretary.  An 
address  in  the  form  of  a  petition  had  already  been 
drawn  up  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  for  the  support  of 
public  religion,  which  was  read  and  approved,  and 
after  it  was  ordered  sent  to  every  parish  in  the  State 
for  signature,  it  was  to  be  carried  by  a  special  com- 
mittee before  the  Legislature,  addressed  : — 

"  To  the  Honorable  the  General  Assembly  of  the 


142  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

State  of  Maryland."  The  members  of  this  prelimi- 
nary convention  were  persuaded  that  their  petition 
was  just,  as  the  33d  section  of  the  "  Bill  of  Rights  " 
contained  an  enabling  clause  "  at  their  discretion  to 
lay  a  general  and  equal  tax  for  the  support  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion."  Before  the  convention  adjourned 
the  secretary,  James  Jones  Wilmer,  proposed  that  the 
Church  known  in  the  province  as  Protestant  be  called 
"  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,"  and  it  was 
adopted.  In  after  years,  when  the  Church  had  be- 
come an  organized  unity,  and  various  ones  were 
taking  credit  to  themselves  for  the  part  they  had 
played  in  effecting  its  consolidation  (as  Dr.  White, 
for  instance,  claimed  the  introduction  of  laymen  into 
the  Church  of  Pennsylvania  in  1783),  James  Jones 
Wilmer  wrote  to  Bishop  Claggett  of  Maryland  under 
date  of  May  6th,  18 10,  as  follows: — 

"  I  am  one  of  the  three  who  first  organized  the 
Episcopal  Church  during  the  Revolution,  and  am 
consequently  one  of  the  primary  aids  to  its  consoli- 
dation throughout  the  United  States.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Smith,  Dr.  Keene,  and  myself  held  the  first  conven- 
tion at  Chestertown,  and  I  acted  as  secretary.  He 
also  states  in  this  letter  that  *'  he  moved  that  the 
Church  of  England  as  heretofore  so  known  in  the 
province  be  now  called  ''  The  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,"  and  it  was  so  adopted.  This  letter  was 
found  by  the  Rev.  Ethan  Allen,  but  it  has  recently  dis- 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  143 

appeared.  A  second  convention,  according  to  the 
vestry  records  of  St.  Peter's,  Talbot  County,  and  St. 
Paul's,  Queen  Anne's  County,  was  called  to  meet  at 
Chestertown,  Md.,  April  5,  1781.  There  is  no  jour- 
nal of  this  convention  known  to  be  in  existence,  but, 
according  to  the  records  of  the  vestries  already  named, 
the  meeting  did  take  place.  The  Rev.  J.  J.  Wilmer's 
letter  shows  that  a  third  convention  of  the  clergy 
and  laity  took  place  in  Baltimore  in  1782.  This  was 
the  first  convention  held  on  the  western  shore,  in 
which  the  Rev.  Wm.  Andrews  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
West  took  part  with  those  already  mentioned  on  the 
eastern  shore.  As  Andrews  returned  from  Penn- 
sylvania in  April,  it  is  presumed  the  convention  took 
place  in  that  month.  The  chief  subject  before  this 
convention,  like  the  two  former  ones,  "  was  how  to 
provide  sustenance  for  the  clergy."  A  fourth  con- 
vention was  held  at  Chestertown,  May  12-15,  1783, 
which  was  also  the  first  annual  commencement  of 
Washington  College,  so  called  in  honorable  and  per- 
petual memory  of  his  Excellency.  Most  of  the 
founders  of  the  college  were  churchmen,  but  it  was 
advertised  and  known  to  the  assembly  as  undenom- 
inational. It  was  at  this  convention  of  1783  that 
the  Maryland  clergy  first  consulted  as  to  what  altera- 
tion might  be  necessary  in  the  Liturgy,  how  the 
Church  might  be  reorganized,  and  a  succession  of 
the  ministry  kept  up.     Accordingly  "  an  address  to 


44 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 


the  Members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  State  of  Maryland  "  was  drawn  up  with  the  fol- 
lowing introduction  : — **  The  Proceedings  of  the 
Clergy  and  Laity  of  this  Church,  at  sundry  con- 
ferences, meetings,  or  conventions  (both  jointly 
and  severally)  during  the  last  three  years,  have  no 
other  object  than  is  in  general  set  forth  in  the  title- 
page,  and  minutes  of  convention,  prefixed  to  this 
address ;  and  our  business,  as  a  committee,  being  to 
digest  and  publish  those  proceedings,  for  the  informa- 
tion of  all  whom  it  may  concern ;  we  shall  begin 
with  the  first  petition  to  the  General  Assembly  of 
this  State,  for  a  law  towards  the  support  of  the 
Christian  Religion,  agreeably  to  the  provision  made 
in  the  Bill  of  Rights."  It  was  the  separate  act  of  a 
very  considerable  number  of  vestries,  wholly  in  their 
lay  character,  and  was  in  the  following  words,  viz. : — 

Here  follows  the  petition  to  the  Honorable  the 
General  Assembly,  etc.,  etc.^ 

When  the  consent  of  various  parishes  had  been 
secured,  the  committee,  in  accordance  with  the  con- 
vention's instructions,  presented  themselves  before 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  in 
an  address  entitled  "  The  Memorial  and  Petition  of 
the  Subscribers,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  others, 
the  Clergy  of  the  Episcopal  Churches,"  showeth  : 
*'  That  the  happy  termination  of  the  war,  the  estab- 

'  Given  in  full  in  Bishop  Perry's  Notes  and  Documents,  pp.  16-21 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


E45 


lishment  of  peace.  .  .  .  That  in  respect  to  the  Epis- 
copal Churches  in  this  State  ....  the  following 
things  are  absolutely  necessary,  viz.  :  ist.  That  some 
alterations  should  be  made  in  the  Liturgy  and  Serv- 
ice, in  order  to  adapt  the  same  to  the  Revolution, 
and  for  other  purposes  of  uniformity,  concord,  and 
subordination  in  the  State.  2d.  That  a  method  and 
plan  for  educating,  ordaining,  and  keeping  up  a  suc- 
cession of  able  and  fit  ministers  or  pastors,  for  the 
service  of  the  said  churches,  agreeably  to  ancient 
practise  and  their  proposed  principles,  as  well  as  that 
universal  toleration  established  by  the  constitution, 
be  speedily  determined  upon,  and  fixed,  under  the 
public  authority  of  the  State,  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  clergy  the  said  churches,  after 
due  consultation  had  thereupon. 

''  Your  petitioners,  therefore,  humbly  pray — That 
the  said  Clergy  may  have  leave  to  consult,  prepare, 
and  offer  to  the   General  Assembly,  the  draft  of  a 
bill,  for  the  good  purposes  aforesaid,  etc.,  etc. 
Signed  ''  WILLIAM  Smith, 

'*  Thomas  Gates." 

The  General  Assembly  readily  granted  the  prayer 

of  the  foregoing  petition.     It  was  at  this  juncture 

that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  wrote  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  White 

of  Philadelphia,   under  date  of  August  4,   1783,  as 

follows : — 

"  Dear  Sir. — The  clergy  of  Maryland  are  to  meet 
10 


146  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

(in  pursuance  of  the  sanction  obtained  from  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly)  on  the  thirteenth  of  this  month  ;  but 
as  Mr.  Gates  and  myself  were  to  call  this  meeting,  we 
found  on  consulting  some  of  our  nearest  brethren,  that 
they  did  not  think  it  proper,  nor  that  we  were  author- 
ized, to  call  any  clergy  to  our  assistance  from  the 
neighboring  states — that  the  Episcopal  clergy  of 
Maryland  were  in  some  respects  peculiarly  circum- 
stanced, and  ought,  in  the  first  instance,  to  have  a 
preparatory  convention  or  conference,  to  consider  and 
frame  a  declaration  of  their  own  rights  as  one  of  the 
churches  of  a  separate  and  independent  State,  to  agree 
upon  some  articles  of  government  and  unity  among 
themselves,  to  fix  some  future  time  of  meeting  by  ad- 
journment, to  appoint  a  committee  to  bring  in  a 
plan  of  some  few  alterations  that  may  be  found 
necessary  in  the  Liturgy  and  Service  of  the  Church, 
and  by  the  authority  of  this  first  meeting  to  open  a 
correspondence  on  the  subject  with  the  clergy  of 
the  neighboring  states,  and  to  have  some  speedy 
future  and  more  general  meeting  with  the  clergy  of 
those  states,  or  committees  from  them,  to  unite  if 
possible  in  the  alterations  to  be  made,  which  many 
among  us  think  cannot  have  a  full  Church  ratifica- 
tion till  we  have  agreed  on  some  plan  or  another, 
the  three  orders  of  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  to 
concur  in  the  same.  What  state  or  civic  ratification 
may  be  necessary,  or  whether  any,  is  a  question  yet 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA, 


147 


to  be  determined.  In  Maryland,  I  presume,  a  few 
words  of  a  declaratory  act,  that  a  clergy,  ordained 
in  such  a  form,  and  using  a  Liturgy  with  such  alter- 
ations as  may  be  agreed  upon,  are  to  be  considered 
as  entitled  to  the  glebes,  churches,  and  other  prop- 
erty declared  by  the  constitution  to  belong  to  the 
Church  of  England  forever.  I  say  such  a  short  act 
as  this,  or  the  opinion  of  the  judges  that  such  act  is 
not  necessary — is,  I  conceive,  all  that  will  be  wanted." 
In  pursuance  of  the  consent  of  General  Assembly 
the  next  convention  of  the  Church  of  Maryland  was 
held  at  Annapolis,  Aug.  13,  1783.  Bishop  White 
in  his  memoirs  (p.  92),  denominates  this  as  Mary- 
land's first  convention.  The  first  act  of  this  Annap- 
olis convention  was  to  nominate  a  committee  con- 
sisting of  Smith,  Gordon,  and  Keene,  for  the  eastern 
shore  and  West,  Claggett,  and  Gates,  for  the  west- 
ern shore  ''  to  prepare  the  draft  of  an  act  or 
charter  of  incorporation,  to  enable  the  Episcopal 
Church  of  this  state,  as  a  body  corporate,  to  hold 
goods,  lands,  and  chattels,  by  deed,  gift,  devise,  etc., 
to  the  amount  of  .  .  .  per  annum,  as  a  fund  for 
providing  small  annuities  to  the  widows  of  clergy- 
men, and  for  the  education  of  their  children,  or  any 
poor  children  in  general,  who  may  be  found  of 
promising  genius  and  disposition  for  a  supply  of 
ministers  in  the  said  Church,  and  for  other  pious 
and   charitable  uses."     The   remaining  business  of 


148 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 


the  convention  was  taken  up  with  deliberations  on 
the  mode  of  obtaining  a  succession  in  the  ministry, 
and  on  some  fundamental  articles  for  future  uniform- 
ity, concord,  and  good  government.  The  draft  of 
the  bill  prepared  by  the  committee  was  entitled  : 

"  A  declaration  of  certain  fundamental  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of 
Maryland,  etc."  The  original  declaration  is  given  in 
full  in  Bishop  Perry's  History,  notes  and  documents 
p.  22.  It  consists  of  a  lengthy  introduction  and 
four  sections  which  was  signed  by  William  Smith, 
president,  and  seventeen  other  clergy.  The  docu- 
ment is  rather  apologetic  in  tone,  which  is  accounted 
for  by  the  knowledge  the  committee  had  of  the 
religious  complexion  of  the  assembly.  It  sought  no 
exclusive  privilege  or  advantage  over  other  denomi- 
nations, and  thanked  His  Excellency  (William  Paca) 
for  his  great  care  and  attention  manifested  for  the 
Christian  Church  in  general. 

His  Excellency  replied  "  that  it  would  give  him 
the  highest  happiness  and  satisfaction,  if,  either  in 
his  individual  capacity  or  public  character,  he  could 
be  instrumental  in  advancing  the  interests  of  religion 
in  general,  alleviating  the  sufferings  of  any  of  her 
ministers,  and  placing  every  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church  in  this  State  upon  the  most  equal  and 
respectable  footing," 

The  convention   of  Aug.    13th   adjourned  to  tl;-: 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  149 

second  week  of  the  spring-session  of  the  General 
Assembly,  or  until  especially  called  by  their  presi- 
dent or  the  committee.  As  there  was  no  spring- 
session,  it  was  afterward  agreed  that  the  president 
should  call  a  meeting  in  June  (1784),  and  that  the 
different  parishes  or  vestries  should  be  invited  to 
send  delegates  to  the  same.  It  was  in  this  interval 
that  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  under  date  of  May 
23d,  Chester,  Maryland,  wrote  the  following  letter  to 
Messrs.  Benj.  Cotman  of  Trinity  Church,  Oxford, 
and  Benj.  Johnson  of  All  Saints,  Pemapecka. 

''  I  know  not  what  can  be  done  at  your  meeting 
of  vestries.  This  at  least  I  wish,  that  a  clergyman 
or  two,  and  about  two  vestrymen,  may  be  appointed 
a  committee  to  meet  committees  from  the  neighbor- 
ing states,  at  some  convenient  place,  about  next 
October,  to  fix  on  a  general  plan  for  all  our  churches, 
both  in  respect  to  discipline  and  our  Church  Service. 
Something  fundamental  ought  also  to  be  agreed 
upon  respecting  ordination,  etc.,  similar  to  what  was 
done  in  Maryland,  a  copy  of  which  I  gave  to  Dr. 
Magaw,  declaring  that  Episcopal  ordination  is  an 
indispensable  qualification  for  every  person  who  may 
be  desirous  to  hold  any  living  in  our  Church.  Cer- 
tainly none  else  can  hold  any  of  the  churches  here- 
tofore established  or  built  under  the  society  for 
propagating  the  Gospel,  nor  the  glebes  where  any 
are.     There  will  be  committees  from  several  of  the 


I50  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Southern  States,  especially  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
but  they  can  hardly  be  got  together  till  towards  the 
end  of  September.  I  hope  they  may  be  induced  to 
meet  as  far  north  as  conveniently  may  be,  perhaps 
at  Philadelphia  or  Brunswick,  or  Wilmington  in 
Delaware  State." 

This  letter  undoubtedly  belongs  to  1784,  as  the 
reference  to  vestries  would  indicate.  The  initial 
movement  towards  introducing  the  laity  into  the 
ecclesiastical  councils  of  Pennsylvania  was  taken  by 
Dr.  White,  March  29,  1784. 

Two  days  after  the  Annapolis  Convention,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith  and  the  Rev.  William  Gates  were 
attacked  by  the  Rev.  Patrick  Allison,  of  Baltimore, 
in  the  Maryland  Gazette,  or  Baltimore  General  Ad- 
vertiser,  of  Friday,  August  15,  1783,  in  an  article 
headed,  "  There  is  a  Time  to  Keep  Silence,  and  a 
Time  to  Speak."  In  this  article  he  addresses  himself 
chiefly  to  "  certain  proposed  alterations  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  and  the  extraordinary  proceed- 
ing of  the  devised  plan  to  perpetuate  the  ministerial 
succession."  He  quotes  from  the  "  Bill  of  Rights," 
that  "  every  man  hath  a  right  to  petition  the  Legisla- 
ture for  redress  of  grievances  in  a  peaceable,  orderly 
manner.  The  Episcopal  clergy  of  Maryland,  as  I 
apprehend,  enjoyed  every  opportunity  and  conven- 
ience to  petition  in  their  own  behalf,  and  were  not 
disabled,  incapacitated,  or  disqualified  in  any  respect 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  1 5 1 

whatever.  If  they  chose  to  waive  the  mode  of  direct 
personal  application,  and  appoint  one  or  two  dis- 
tinguished characters  among  their  brethren  to  apply 
for  them,  equally  capable  were  they  of  furnishing 
their  representatives  with  clear,  satisfying  evidence  of 
the  appointment,  whereby  their  authority  to  proceed 
might  be  unquestionably  proved.  I  ask,  then, '  How 
it  appears  that  Dr.  Smith,  and  Mr.  Gates  were 
authorized  to  negotiate  the  public  concern  under- 
taken by  them  ?  Unless  the  history  is  defective  or 
unfair,  they  are  exhibited  in  the  unfavorable  forward 
light  of  self-delegated  agents,  transacting  for  others 
without  commission,  representing  their  case  without 
being  chosen,  using  their  names  without  their  con- 
sent," etc.  Here  he  quotes  section  "  33  "  of  the  Bill 
of  Rights.  '*  Agreeably  to  this  fundamental  in  consti- 
tutional freedom,  every  denomination  of  Christians, 
their  delegates  and  representatives,  may,  unmolested 
and  unquestioned,  meet  at  such  times  and  places  to 
consult  about,  regulate,  and  direct  in  the  various 
businesses  of  their  various  churches,  whether  in  rela- 
tion to  belief,  to  discipline,  or  worship  ;  whether  the 
design  be  to  compose  or  alter  prayers,  or  determine 
by  whom  and  to  whom  the  office  of  a  bishop  shall 
be  committed.  Under  the  security  of  the  solemn 
declaration,  all  denominations  have  met,  and  do 
meet  (here  he  quotes  the  principal  ones  of  the  thir- 
teen  denominations  of  Maryland).     They  have,  or 


152  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

ought  to  have,  in  view  what  is  essentially  different 
from  civil  government ;  and,  therefore,  in  no  part 
does  civil  government  meddle  with  them  at  all.  A 
similar  right  is  recognized  and  exercised  over  the 
whole  thirteen  free  and  independent  states.  .  .  . 
None  should  be  allowed  to  invade  the  privileges  or 
enjoy  distinctions  at  the  expense  of  others,  an 
inequality  which,  I  trust,  will  never  be  tolerated 
here.  .  .  .  They  and  their  secret  coadjutors  are 
justly  charged  with  having  in  contemplation  a 
favorite  scheme,  to  be  pursued  by  gradual  steps, 
which  they  do  not  hold  safe  or  advisable  to  disclose 
fully  at  present.  .  .  .  Some  folks,  surely  they 
cannot  be  many,  seem  still  to  think  some  particular 
church  should  be  in  a  certain  sort  of  intimate  con- 
nection and  union  with  government,  peculiarly, 
entitled  to  her  friendly  notice,  singularly  dependent 
on  her  fostering  care ;  biased  herein,  no  doubt,  by 
habits  contracted  antecedent  to  the  era  of  our 
freedom.  .  .  .  Should  the  arrogant  usurpation 
be  attempted  in  favor  of  any  one  religious  denomina- 
tion whatever,  and  should  all  other  denominations 
be  mean-spirited  and  unmanly  enough  to  submit, 
they  will  deservedly  crouch  under  the  ignominious 
burdens  laid  on  their  slavish  backs. 

(Signed)  "  ViNDEX. 

"  Frederick,  Aug.  4,  1783." 

Dr.  Allison  was  a  Presbyterian,  and  lived  in  Balti- 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


153 


more,  but  he  dated  it  from  Frederick  to  disarm  sus- 
picion as  to  the  quarter  from  which  it  might  have 
come,  as  Somerset  County,  on  the  eastern  shore,  had 
been  the  cradle  of  Presbyterianism  in  these  United 
States.  The  experienced  and  accomplished  Dr. 
Smith  divined  its  author,  and  made  reply  in  the 
same  paper,  on  the  9th  of  September,  1783,  in  a 
lengthy  article,  and  charges  him  with  deceit  and 
falsehood,  inasmuch  as  his  argument  was,  for  the 
most  part,  a  verbal  repetition  of  his  arguments  and 
concessions  made  in  a  conference  upon  the  same 
subject  with  the  Rev.  John  Andrews  and  myself  at 
Baltimore,  in  July  last,  wherein,  to  the  best  of  my 
remembrance,  we  had  but  little  diversity  of  senti- 
ment. .  .  .  You  are  the  only  person  whom  I 
have  ever  heard  express  the  least  jealousy  or  con- 
cern. .  .  .  Whether  such  meeting  was  held  with 
or  without  leave,  with  or  without  the  formality  of 
any  previous  notice  to  the  Legislature ;  whether  it 
was  called  privately  or  publicly,  by  one  or  more 
of  the  body,  or  whether  the  whole,  having  come 
together  by  some  lucky  accident,  had  first  agreed 
upon  the  expediency  of  a  future  meeting,  and  had 
then  signed  an  instrument  of  writing  to  invite  and 
authorize  each  other  to  meet,  the  only  public  con- 
cern is,  whether  its  proceedings  are  constitutional, 
legal,  and  salutary  ? 

Dr.  Smith  refers  to  his  fictitious  signature   and 


154  ^-^^^  IVOJ^D  PROTESTANT. 

remarks :  ''  As  your  name  stands  high  among  that 
denomination  in  Maryland,  which,  under  the  present 
constitution,  seei^s  alone  to  retain  any  symptoms  of 
the  former  Episc  )pal  horrors  and  jealousies,  and  as  I 
have  long  expe'  enced  from  you  a  continuation  of 
that  candor  and  respect  which  commenced  from  our 
first  connection  as  master  and  pupil  (and  which,  I 
trust,  will  never  want  a  due  return  on  my  part),  I 
could  wish  to  discuss  the  present  business  with  you 
alone.  Mr.  Gates  and  myself  met  for  '  leave  to  con- 
sult, prepare,  and  offer  a  bill.*  This  is  a  petition  of 
common  right,  and  I  believe  it  hath  never  been  heard 
that  any  private  or  public  bill  was  ever  offered  to 
a  legislative  body  without  leave  first  asked  and 
obtained." 

He  next  goes  into  the  reasons  why  they  could  not 
petition  in  their  own  behalf,  as  many  of  them  lived 
at  near  200  miles  distance  from  each  other.  They 
were  under  no  obligation  to  publish  their  commis- 
sion, to  satisfy  every  busy  inquirer  in  that  matter. 
Their  brethren  the  clergy  gave  them  their  unani- 
mous thanks  for  the  manner  of  their  proceeding. 
All  endeavors  to  separate  or  divide  them  and  to  pre- 
vent their  assembling  to  consult  and  deliberate  with 
all  possible  harmony  upon  their  religious  situation 
and  concerns  (God  be  thanked  !)  have  proved  abor- 
tive. 

He  next  touches  on  the  "  Bill  of  Rights  "  respect- 


AD  OPTED  IN  AMERICA.  i  5  5 

ing  that  part  of  it  which  refers  to  rehgious  liberty,  as 
a  rule  for  others,  which  it  seems  to  me  you  have 
wholly  forgotten  in  your  otvn  conduct.  For  you 
strive  to  ''  disturb  the  good  order  and  peace  of  the 
State"  by  seeking  to  revive  groundless  jealousies 
and  to  introduce  threadbare  and  needless  disputes. 
You  "infringe  the  law  of  morality  by  uncharitable 
censures,  charging  without  proof  some  of  your  fellow- 
citizens  as  wrong-headed  zealots,  aspiring  ecclesias- 
tics, etc.  .  .  ."  There  is  an  express  clause  in  the 
"  Bill  of  Rights  "  appropriating  certain  property  in 
this  State,  such  as  churches,  chapels,  glebes,  etc.,  to 
the  Church  of  England  forever.  But  it  may  be  made 
a  question,  under  the  revolution,  what  is  meant  by 
the  Church  of  England  in  Maryland,  if,  instead  of 
this  name,  another  should  be  used,  such  as  "  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of,  or  in,  Maryland."^ 
And  some  necessary  alterations  should  be  made  in 
the  service  now  used,  in  order  to  accommodate  the 
same  to  our  present  or  future  circumstances  and  per- 
suasions. It  may  then  be  said  we  are  no  longer 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Others  may  pretend 
that  they  come  nearer  to  that  church  than  we  do 
(the  Moravians  are  Protestant  Episcopal),  and  claim 
either  a  common  or  exclusive  right  in  the  said  prop- 
erty, although  nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that 

1  There  is  a  Catholic  Episcopal  Church  in  Maryland,  which  is  the 
reason  of  the  distinction  intended  by  the  word  Protestant. 


156  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

such  property  ought  never  to  be  lost  to  any  church 
by  means  of  the  change  of  a  name  or  other  altera- 
tions in  modes  and  forms,  provided  the  same  be  made 
with  the  authority  and  consent  of  the  different  orders 
of  her  clergy  and  people,  duly  organized  and  repre- 
sented for  that  purpose.  The  sole  object  of  the  bill 
is  to  remove  all  such  doubts  concerning  the  property 
reserved  to  the  Episcopal  Church,  to  raise  and  man- 
age a  fund  for  the  relief  of  distressed  widows  and 
children  of  her  clergy,  and  to  assist  youths  in  gaining 
an  education.  Such  declaratory  and  incorporating 
acts  have  long  since  been  granted  to  the  Episcopal, 
the  Presbyterian,  and  other  denominations  who  have 
requested  the  same  in  New  York,  Nevv^  Jersey,  and 
Pennsylvania,  etc.  You  and  I  are  members  of  such 
corporations,  viz. :  (society  for  establishing  schools 
amongst  German  settlers  and  supplying  them  with 
Protestant  ministers)  in  other  states.  Here  he 
quotes  the  *'  Declaration  of  Rights  "  drawn  up  at  the 
late  convention,  which  formed  the  groundwork  for 
completing  their  spiritual  fabric :  Wherefore,  we, 
the  clergy  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of 
Maryland  (heretofore  denominated  the  Church  of 
England,  as  by  law  established),  v/ith  all  duty  to  the 
civil  authority  of  the  State,  and  with  all  love  and 
good-will  to  our  fellow-Christians  of  every  other  relig- 
ious denomination,  do  hereby  declare,  make  known, 
and  claim  the  following  as  certain  of  the  fundamental 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


157 


rights  and  liberties  inherent  in  and  belonging  to 
the  said  Episcopal  Church,  not  only  of  common 
right,  but  agreeably  to  the  express  words,  spirit,  and 
design  of  the  constitution  and  form  of  government 
aforesaid,  viz. : 

I.  We  consider  it  as  the  undoubted  right  of  the 
said  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in  common  with 
other  Christian  Churches  under  the  American  Revo- 
lution, to  complete  and  preserve  herself  as  an  entire 
Church,  agreeably  to  her  ancient  usages  and  profes- 
sion, and  to  have  the  free  enjoyment  and  free  exer- 
cise of  those  purely  spiritual  powers  which  are  essen- 
tial to  the  being  of  every  Church  or  congregation  of 
the  faithful,  and  which,  being  derived  only  from 
Christ  and  His  apostles,  are  to  be  maintained  inde- 
pendent of  every  foreign  or  other  jurisdiction  so  far 
as  may  be  consistent  with  the  civil  rights  of  society. 

II.  That  ever  since  the  Reformation  it  hath  been 
the  received  doctrine  of  the  Church  whereof  we  are 
members  (and  which  by  the  constitution  of  this 
state  is  entitled  to  the  perpetual  enjoyment  of  cer- 
tain property  and  rights  under  the  denomination  of 
the  Church  of  England),  "  That  there  be  these  three 
orders  of  ministers  in  Christ's  Church — Bishops, 
Priests,  and  Deacons,"  and  that  an  Episcopal  ordina- 
tion and  commission  are  necessary  to  the  valid  ad- 
ministration of  the  Sacraments  and  the  due  exercise 
of  the  ministerial  functions  in  the  said  Church. 


1 5  8  THE  WORD  PR  O  TESTANT. 

III.  That,  without  calling  in  question  the  rights, 
modes,  and  forms  of  any  other  Christian  churches 
or  societies,  or  wishing  the  least  contest  with  them 
on  that  subject,  we  consider  and  declare  it  to  be 
an  essential  right  of  the  said  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  to  have  and  enjoy  the  continuance  of  the 
said  three  orders  of  ministers  forever,  so  far  as  con- 
cerns matters  purely  spiritual ;  and  that  no  persons, 
in  the  character  of  ministers,  except  such  as  are  in 
the  communion  of  the  said  Church,  and  duly  called 
to  the  ministry  by  regular  Episcopal  ordination, 
can  or  ought  to  be  admitted  into,  or  enjoy  any  of 
the  "  churches,  chapels,  glebes,  or  other  property," 
formerly  belonging  to  the  Church  of  England  in  this 
state,  and  which  by  the  constitution  and  form  of 
government  is  secured  to  the  said  Church  forever, 
by  whatsoever  name,  she,  the  said  Church,  or  her 
superior  order  of  ministers,  may  in  future  be  de- 
nominated. 

IV.  That  as  it  is  the  right,  so  it  will  be  the  duty, 
of  the  said  church,  when  duly  organized,  consti- 
tuted, and  represented  in  a  synod  or  convention  of 
the  different  orders  of  her  ministry  and  people,  to 
revise  her  Liturgy,  forms  of  prayer,  and  public  wor- 
ship, in  order  to  adapt  the  same  to  the  late  Revolu- 
tion and  other  local  circumstances  of  America; 
which,  it  is  humbly  conceived,  may  and  will  be  done, 
without  any   other  or  farther   departure    from    the 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


159 


venerable  order  and  beautiful  forms  of  worship  of 
the  Church  from  whence  we  sprung,  than  may  be 
found  expedient  in  the  change  of  our  situation  from 
a  daughter  to  a  sister  Church. 

These  articles  were  adopted  at  the  Annapolis  Con- 
vention, Aug.  13,  1783. 

The  following  petition  may  not  be  without  in- 
V  terest   as   it   was    presented    to   the    Governor   not 
later  than  1770,  when  the  Church  was  in  full  posses- 
sion, and  no  question  or  objection  was  made  what- 
ever. 

''To  His  Excellency  Robert  Eden,  Esq.  (1769- 
1774),  Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief  over 
the  Province  of  Maryland  : — 

"'  The  petition  of  us,  the  subscribers,  in  behalf  of 
ourselves  and  others,  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
Society,  in  Baltimore  Town,  humbly  sheweth.  That 
your  petitioners,  being  Protestant  dissenters,  have,  at 
a  considerable  expense,  purchased  a  lot  of  ground, 
and  erected  thereon  a  church  for  the  decent  celebra- 
tion of  public  worship  in  the  exercise  whereof  we 
are  influenced  by  such  motives  as  our  best  informa- 
tion obliges  us  to  approve.  Our  religious  profession, 
though  different  from  the  Church  established  in 
this  province,  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  govern- 
ment and  laws  which  breathe  the  spirit  of  toleration. 
Yet  as  we  enjoy  no  legal  consideration  in  a  con- 
gregational capacity,  we  are  unavoidably  subject  to 


i6o  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


many  inconveniences  in  recovering  and  securing  such 
subscriptions  as  become  due  in  the  ordinary  manage- 
ment of  our  affairs ;  together  with  any  grants,  de- 
vises, and  donations  which  have  been  or  may  here- 
after be  made  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  our  Church, 
and  fear  that  we  are  not  sufficiently  enabled  to  hold 
the  Church,  burying-ground,  and  estate  of  the  society 
by  a  clear  and  indisputable  title.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances we  beg  leave  to  request  that  Your 
Excellency  would  be  pleased  to  grant  unto  certain 
persons  of  our  society  a  charter  of  incorporation  for 
the  benefit  of  the  same,  whereby  our  apprehensions 
and  inconveniences  may  be  removed  and  our  pro- 
fessions effectually  secured.  With  pleasure  we  view 
the  spreading  Catholicism  of  the  present  enlightened 
age,  and  the  agreeable  harmony  which  prevails 
among  Christians  of  various  denominations.  En- 
couraged by  your  liberal  and  generous  sentiments 
we  respectfully  prefer  this  application  to  Your  Ex- 
cellency, whose  mild  and  impartial  administration, 
since  you  received  the  reins  of  government  in  Mary- 
land, have  justly  entitled  you  to  the  warmest  ac- 
knowledgments from  all  its  inhabitants.  Should 
we  be  so  happy  as  to  obtain  your  approbation  of  our 
request  it  will  increase  the  obligations  we  are  already 
under  to  Your  Excellency,  in  common  with  the 
whole  people  who  have  experienced  the  salutary 
effects  of  your  upright  measures.     With  due  defer- 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA,  i6l 

ence  we    submit  the    premises    to   your  considera- 
tion, entreating  Your  Excellency  to  grant  us  such 
relief  therein  as  to  your  wisdom  shall  seem  proper, 
and  your  petitioners,  as  in  duty  bound,  shall  pray. 
JONA.  Plowman,  W.  Smith, 

Will  Lyon  &  W.  Smith,    William  Neille, 
Wm.  Buchanan,  John  Boyd, 

Wm.  J.  Pear,  A.  Stenhouse, 

J.  Laterett,  John  Smith, 

Saml.  Purviance,  Jr.,         Robert  Purviance, 
Jas.  Calhoun, 
Committee  of  Presbyterian  Society 

of  Baltimore  Towny^ 
To  return  to  our  subject  proper,  it  will  be  in  order 
to  state  that  an  adjourned  convention  was  held  at 
Annapolis,  August  17,  1783,  at  which  there  were 
seventeen  of  the  clergy  present.  Dr.  Smith  acted 
as  president  and  the  Rev.  William  West  as  secre- 
tary. The  outcome  of  their  deliberations  concerning 
a  succession  in  the  ministry  resulted  in  the  election 
of  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  to  the  episcopate 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  State  of 
Maryland.  His  testimonial  to  the  Bishop  of  London, 
dated  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  August  16,  1783,  was  signed 
by  seventeen  clergy,  two  natives  of  Virginia  and  three 
from  New  York.  In  accordance  with  previous  in- 
structions, it  was  understood  that  every  parish  and 

>  See  Archives  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  Annapolis. 
II 


1 62  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

vestry  was  expected  to  be  invited,  and  to  send  dele- 
gates to  the  June  meeting  in  1784,  thus  sanctioning 
and  providing  for  the  laity  as  in  every  case  before. 
When  the  convention  had  assembled  at  Baltimore, 
June  22,  1784,  their  first  business  was  to  take  into 
consideration  the  proceedings  of  the  clerical  mem- 
bers at  their  meeting  in  August,  1783,  when  the 
lay  delegates  desired  leave  to  retire  and  consult 
upon  the  same ;  and  on  their  return,  reported  by 
Mr.  Joseph  Coudon  that  they  had  read  and  dis- 
cussed the  same,  paragraph  by  paragraph,  and  unani- 
mously approved  thereof.  Before  the  close  of  this 
convention,  a  committee  was  appointed,  consisting 
of  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Rev.  William  West,  Rev.  John 
Andrews,  Mr.  Joseph  Coudon,  A.  M.,  Hon.  Richard 
Ridgley,  and  Dr.  Thomas  Cradock,  to  digest  and 
publish  the  proceedings  of  this  convention,  and  such 
parts  of  former  conventions  as  may  be  judged  neces- 
sary to  lay  before  the  public,  etc.  They  began  their 
report  by  saying,  "  The  proceedings  of  the  clergy 
and  laity  of  this  Church  at  sundry  conferences,  meet- 
ings, or  conventions,  both  jointly  and  severally, 
during  the  three  years  last  past."  Dr.  Smith  was  a 
man  of  varied  accomplishments,  but  he  failed  of 
being  consecrated,  owing  possibly  to  Tory  opposi- 
tion or  other  minor  indiscretions. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Seabury  was  elected  to  the  episco- 
pate of  Connecticut  the  latter  part  of  March,  1783, 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  163 

and,  after  long  delay,  he  was  consecrated  by  the  non- 
juring  bishops  of  Scotland,  November  14,  1784. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  Connecticut  clergy 
took  action  in  regard  to  a  pamphlet  issued  by  Dr. 
White  in  Philadelphia  towards  the  close  of  the  year 
1782,  and  instructed  Abraham  Jarvis,  their  secretary, 
to  corhmunicate  with  Dr.  White  in  relation  to  his 
proposed  ordaining  board.  This  letter  was  dated 
Woodbury,  March  25,  1783,  and  is  in  part  as  fol- 
lows : — 

''  Reverend  Sir, — We,  the  clergy  of  Connecticut, 
met  at  Woodbury,  in  voluntary  convention,  beg 
leave  to  acquaint  you  that  a  small  pamphlet,  printed 
in  Philadelphia,  has  been  transmitted  to  us,  of  which 
you  are  said  to  be  the  author.  This  pamphlet  pro- 
poses a  new  form  of  government  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  points  at  the  method  of  erecting  it. 
As  the  thirteen  states  have  now  arisen  to  independ- 
ent sovereignty,  we  agree  with  you,  sir,  that  the 
chain  which  connected  this  with  the  Mother  Church 
is  broken ;  and  the  American  Church  is  now  left  to 
stand  in  its  own  strength,  and  that  some  change  in 
its  regulations  must  in  due  time  take  place.  But 
we  think  it  premature  and  of  dangerous  consequence 
to  enter  upon  so  capital  a  business  till  we  have  resi- 
dent bishops  (if  they  can  be  obtained)  to  assist  in 
the  performance  of  it,  and  to  form  a  new  union  in 
the  American  Church,  under  proper  superiors,  since 


1 64  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

its  union  is  now  broken  with  such  superiors  in  the  Brit- 
ish Church.  Dr.  White  seemingly  argued  from  the  sec- 
tarian premises  that  the  bishop  derived  his  office  and 
existence  from  the  king's  authority.  The  Connecticut 
clergymen  argue  that  he  (White)  could  not  have 
proposed  to  set  up  a  ministry,  without  waiting  for 
the  succession,  had  you  believed  Episcopal  superior- 
ity to  be  an  ordinance  of  Christ,  with  the  exclusive 
authority  of  ordination  and  government,  and  that  it 
has  ever  been  so  esteemed  in  the  purest  ages  of  the 
Church.  .  .  .  You  plead  necessity,  however,  and 
argue  that  the  best  writers  in  the  Church  admit  of 
Presbyterian  ordination,  where  Episcopal  cannot  be 
had.  .  .  .  We  think  the  Episcopal  superiority  to  be 
an  ordinance  of  Christ,  and  we  think  that  the  uni- 
form practise  of  the  whole  American  Church,  for 
near  a  century,  sending  their  candidates  near  3,000 
miles  for  holy  orders  is  more  than  a  presumptive 
proof  that  the  Church  here  are,  and  ever  have  been, 
of  this  opinion,"  etc.* 

Dr.  White,  in  his  pamphlet,  **  The  Case  of  the 
Episcopal  Churches  Considered,"  argued  with  per- 
spicuity, but  his  reasons  were  principally  drawn 
from  the  Presbyterian  armory.  When  he  states 
"  that  English  Protestants,  during  the  persecution  of 
Queen  Mary,  fled  to  Germany  and  Geneva,"  we  un- 
hesitatingly assert  that  most  every  one  of  them  went 
*  Appendix  to  Bishop  White's  Memoirs,  p,  282. 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


i6s 


to  Zurich  and  Frankfort.  He  affirms  that  the  return, 
ing  exiles  who  had  received  sectarian  ordination  were 
admitted  to  hold  benefices  in  England,  as  in  the 
case  of  Whittingham,  already  referred  to.  He  cites 
the  Law  "  13th  Elizabeth  12,"  which  Non-Conform- 
ists had  endeavored  to  wrest  from  its  original 
context  on  the  merest  technicality  in  favor  of 
non-Episcopal  ordination,  etc.-^ 

There  is  another  instance  of  how  little  the  good 
Dr.  White  knew  of  ecclesiastical  events  outside  his 
own  country,  as  on  page  20  of  his  Memoirs  he  states, 
"  No  sooner  was  it  known  in  America  that  Great 
Britain  had  acknowledged  her  independence,  than  a 
few  young  gentlemen  to  the  southward  .  .  .  applied 
to  the  then  Bishop  of  London,  Dr.  Lowth,  for 
orders."  Dr.  Lowth  was  Bishop  of  London,  accord- 
ing to^  Bishop  Stubb's  *'  Registrum  Sacrum  Angli- 
canum"  (2d  ed.  1897),  from  1766  to  1777.  Drs. 
McConnell  and  McMaster,  following  in  the  footsteps 
of  Bishop  White,  are  clearly  in  error  when  they 
quote  Dr.  Lowth  as  Bishop  of  London  in  1784. 

As  Bishop  White,  in  his  Memoirs  (p.  86,  2d  ed.) 
claimed  to  be  the  '*  proposer  of  the  measure  of  intro- 
ducing lay  members  into  the  first  ecclesiastical  as- 
sembly in  any  of  the  States,"  the  principle  of  which 
he  first  advocated  in  a  pamphlet  already  referred 
to,  it  will  be  in  order  to  examine  step  by  step,  to 

*  The  Case,  etc.,  is  printed  in  full  in  Bishop  Perry's  N.  D.,  p.  421. 


1 66  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

show  how  the  separate  fragments  were  gathered  into 
a  collective  body.  The  first  thought  that  was  given 
to  the  subject  in  Pennsylvania  was  merely  in  con- 
versation between  Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Magaw  on  the 
13th  of  November,  1783,  which  resulted  in  the  pre- 
liminary meeting  of  the  clergy  and  vestries  of  Christ, 
St.  Peter's,  and  St.  Paul's  Churches,  on  the  31st  of 
March,  1784.  The  clergy  present  at  this  meeting 
were  the  Rev.  Dr.  White,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Magaw,  and 
the  Rev.  Robert  Blackwell.  There  were  two  laymen 
from  each  parish  invited,  as  follows  :  Matthew  Clark- 
son,  William  Pollard,  Christ  Church ;  Dr.  Clarkson, 
John  Chalnor,  St.  Peter's ;  Lambert  Wilmer,  Esq., 
Plunket  Fleeson,  Esq.,  St.  Paul's.  Matthew  Clark- 
son  and  Dr.  Clarkson  were  not  present,  as  they  had 
been  detained  by  sickness.  The  supreme  question 
before  this  body  of  three  clergymen  and  four  laymen 
was  the  urgent  necessity  of  speedily  adopting  meas- 
ures for  the  forming  of  a  plan  of  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment for  the  Episcopal  Church,  if  possible,  with 
the  concurrence  of  the  Episcopalians  of  the  United 
States  in  general,  and  to  this  end  it  was  resolved  to 
send  a  circular-letter  to  the  wardens  and  vestrymen 
of  the  respective  Episcopal  congregations  in  the 
State,  which  was  entrusted  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  White, 
ch^airman,  who  issued  the  letter,  inviting  one  or  more 
of  each  vestry  throughout  the  state  to  meet  in  Christ 
Church  on  Monday,  the  24th   day  of  May,  1784. 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


167 


Two  months  previous  to  the  preliminary  meeting, 
held  in  Philadelphia,  the  Rev.  Abraham  Beach,  of 
New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  wrote  the  following 
letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  White  under  date  of  January 
26,  1784: — 

*'  Reverend  Sir : — I  always  expected  that,  as  soon 
as  the  return  of  peace  should  put  it  in  their  power,  the 
members  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  this  country 
would  interest  themselves  in  its  behalf — would  en- 
deavor to  introduce  order  and  uniformity  into  it  and 
provide  for  a  succession  in  the  ministry.  The  silence 
on  this  subject  which  hath  universally  prevailed,  and 
still  prevails,  is  a  matter  of  real  concern  to  me,  as  it 
seems  to  portend  an  utter  extinction  of  that  church 
which  I  so  highly  venerate.  As  I  flatter  myself 
your  sentiments  correspond  with  my  own,  I  cannot 
deny  myself  the  satisfaction  of  writing  you  on  the 
subject.  Every  person  I  have  conversed  with  is 
fully  sensible  that  something  should  be  done,  and 
the  sooner  the  better.  For  my  own  part,  I  think  the 
first  step  that  should  be  taken,  in  the  present  unset- 
tled state  of  the  Church,  is  to  get  a  meeting  of  as 
many  of  the  clergy  as  can  be  conveniently  col- 
lected. Such  a  meeting  appears  to  be  peculiarly 
necessary  in  order  to  look  into  the  condition  of  the 
widow's  fund,  which  may  at  present  be  an  object 
worth  attending  to,  but  will  unavoidably  dwindle  to 
nothing  if  much  longer  neglected.     Would  it  not, 


1 68  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

therefore,  be  proper  to  advertise  a  meeting  of  the 
corporation  in  the  spring  at  Brunswick,  or  any  other 
place  that  may  be  thought  more  convenient,  and  en- 
deavor to  get  together  as  many  as  possible  of  the 
clergy,  who  are  not  members,  at  the  same  time  and 
place.  A  sincere  regard  to  the  interests  of  the 
Church  induces  me  to  make  these  proposals,  wishing 
to  be  favored  with  your  sentiments  upon  this  sub- 
ject. If  anything  should  occur  to  you  as  necessary 
to  be  done  in  order  to  put  us  upon  an  equal  footing 
with  other  denominations  of  Christians,  and  cement 
us  together  in  the  bonds  of  love,  I  should  be  happy 
in  an  opportunity  of  assisting  in  it." 

Dr.  White  replied  to  the  above  communication  on 
the  7th  of  February,  and  the  Rev.  Abraham  Beach 
immediately  communicated  Dr.  White's  concurrence 
in  the  movement  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Provost  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Moore,  of  New  York.  In  this  letter  of 
Rev.  Mr.  Beach's,  under  date  of  March  22,  1784,  he 
says  to  Dr.  White : 

"  In  a  letter  I  received  from  Mr.  Blackwell,  some 
time  ago,  he  proposed  Tuesday,  nth  May,  as  a 
proper  time  for  the  meeting,  and  acquiesced  with  my 
proposal  of  Brunswick  for  the  place.  .  .  .  Some 
of  the  lay  members  may  perhaps  scarcely  think  it 
worth  their  while  to  take  so  much  trouble  without  a 
prospect  of  immediate  profit  to  themselves.  I  cannot 
but  flatter  myself,  however,  that  there  are  some  still 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  169 

who  would  wish  to  promote  the  interests  of  religion 
in  general  to  save  the  Church  of  which  we  are  mem- 
bers from  utter  decay,  and  consequently  to  promote 
the  real  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  country. 
Persons  of  this  character  will  not,  surely,  withhold 
their  assistance  at  this  very  critical  juncture,"  etc.,  etc. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Beach  wrote  again  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
White,  April  13,  1784: 

"  I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Provost 
signifying  his  concurrence  of  our  meeting  at  Bruns- 
wick on  Tuesday,  May  nth.  I  wish  you  would  be 
so  good  as  to  advertise  it  in  one  of  your  newspapers, 
with  an  invitation  to  all  clergymen  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  perhaps  you  may  think  it  proper  to  in- 
vite respectable  characters  of  the  laity,  as  matters  of 
general  concern  to  the  Church  may  probably  be  dis- 
cussed. ...  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the 
pamphlet  (the  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches,  etc.) 
you  were  so  kind  to  send  me.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
reading  it  on  its  first  publication,  and  am  happy  to 
agree  with  you  in  every  particular  excepting  the 
necessity  of  receding  from  ancient  usages.  If  this 
necessity  existed  in  time  of  war,  I  cannot  think  that 
it  does  at  present,"  etc. 

The  meeting  proposed  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Beach 
took  place  at  New  Brunswick,  May  11,  1784,  was 
composed  of  ten  clergymen  and  six  laymen  from  the 
States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania. 


70 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


The  chief  object  of  this  meeting  was  the  revival  of 
the  corporation  for  the  relief  of  the  widows  and 
orphans  of  the  clergy.  A  committee  was  also  ap- 
pointed to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the  whole 
Church  (especially  Connecticut)  in  measures  looking 
to  the  formation  and  consolidation  of  the  whole 
Church.  This  committee  was  instructed  to  secure 
the  interest  of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  scattered 
churches  in  a  general  meeting  proposed  to  be  held 
in  New  York,  October  5,  1784.  Bishop  White,  in 
his  Memoirs,  makes  no  allusion,  in  the  account  of 
this  New  Brunswick  gathering,  to  the  plan  and  pur- 
pose of  union  so  ardently  desired  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Beach. 

In  pursuance  with  the  previous  invitation  the 
clergy  and  laity  of  Pennsylvania  assembled  at  Christ 
Church  May  24,  1784.  There  were  four  clergy 
men,  viz.,  Dr.  White  of  Christ  Church,  Rev.  Wm. 
Blackwell  of  St.  Peter's,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Magaw  of 
St.  Paul's,  and  the  Rev.  Jos.  Hutchins  of  St.  James, 
Lancaster.  There  were  twenty-one  laymen  present, 
eight  of  whom  represented  the  above  named  parishes 
and  the  balance  represented  ten  churches  which 
were  nothing  more  than  missions,  as  they  were 
entirely  supported  by  the  S.  P.  G.  Dr.  White  was 
chosen  chairman,  and  Mr.  William  Pollard  of  Christ 
Church,  clerk.  This  was  not  the  first  formal  con- 
ference where  the  laity  had  been  accorded  the  rights 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  171 

and  privileges  of  membership,  but  it  was  probably 
the  first  meeting  that  had  taken  formal  action  on 
parish  representation,  as  a  committee  consisting  of 
four  clergy  and  five  laymen  "  resolved,  that  each 
church  shall  have  one  vote,  whether  represented  by 
one  or  more  persons ;  or  whether  two  or  more 
united  congregations  be  represented  by  one  man,  or 
set  of  men." 

The  result  of  the  deliberations  of  the  clergy  and 
laity,  from  the  sundry  congregations  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  set  forth  a 
series  of  fundamental  rules  or  principles,  which  were 
founded  upon  the  Maryland  "  declaration  of  religi- 
ous rights,"  but  is  more  concisely  expressed  under 
the  following  heads  : 

I.  That  the  Episcopal  Church  in  these  states  is 
and  ought  to  be  independent  of  all  foreign  author- 
ity, ecclesiastical  or  civil. 

II.  That  it  hath  and  ought  to  have,  in  common 
with  all  other  religious  societies,  full  and  exclusive 
powers  to  regulate  the  concerns  of  its  own  com- 
munion. 

III.  That  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  be  main- 
tained as  now  professed  by  the  Church  of  England ; 
and  uniformity  of  worship  be  continued,  as  near  as 
may  be,  to  the  Liturgy  of  the  said  Church. 

IV.  That  the  succession  of  the  ministry  be  agree- 
ably to  the  usage  which  requireth  the  three  orders 


172  THE   WORD  PROTESTANT. 

of  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  ;  that  the  rights  and 
powers  of  the  same  respectively  be  ascertained,  and 
that  they  be  exercised  according  to  reasonable  laws, 
to  be  duly  made. 

V.  That  to  make  canons  or  laws,  there  be  no 
other  authority  than  that  of  a  representative  body 
of  the  clergy  and  laity  conjointly. 

VI.  That  no  powers  be  delegated  to  a  general 
ecclesiastical  government  except  such  as  cannot 
conveniently  be  exercised  by  the  clergy  and  vestries 
in  their  respective  congregations. 

(Signed)  WILLIAM  White, 

Chairman, 

The  clergy  of  Maryland  met  again  at  Chester, 
Ocl;ober,  1784,  and  adopted  certain  constitutions,  in 
many  respects  similar  to  those  afterwards  adopted 
by  the  general  convention. 

The  clergy  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 
met  at  Boston  and  adopted  substantially  the  same 
principles  that  the  Philadelphia  convention  had 
adopted  the  previous  May,  1784.  It  was  stated  at 
this  Boston  meeting  to  be  the  unanimous  opinion  of 
the  clergy  assembled  **  that  it  is  beginning  at  the 
wrong  end  to  attempt  to  organize  our  church  before 
we  have  obtained  a  head."  ^ 

At    the    New    Brunswick    meeting    of    May   11, 
1784,  it  was  unanimously  agreed  to  before  parting  to 
1  Bishop  Leighton  Coleman  Hist,  of  Am.  Ch.,  p.  143. 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  173 

procure  as  general  a  meeting  as  might  be,  of  clergy 
and  laity  of  the  different  states,  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  on  the  6th  of  October,  1784.  The  clergy 
and  laity  of  New  York  were  to  notify  the  brethren 
eastward,  and  those  of  Philadelphia  were  to  do  the 
same  southward.  According  to  invitation,  the  gen- 
tlemen of  the  various  states  named  below  assembled 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  October  5th,  1784.  There 
were  present  six  clergymen  and  three  laymen  from 
New  York  ;  one  clergyman  and  three  laymen  from 
New  Jersey;  three  clergymen  and  four  laymen  from 
Pennsylvania ;  two  clergymen  and  one  layman  from 
Delaware ;  one  clergyman  from  Maryland ;  one 
clergyman  frdm  Connecticut ;  one  clergyman  from 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island ;  one  clergyman 
from  Virginia  "  by  permission." 

The  chief  business  of  this  convention  was  to 
**  unite  in  a  general  ecclesiastical  constitution,  on  the 
following  fundamental  principles  :  " 

I.  That  there  shall  be  a  general  convention  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

II.  That  the  Episcopal  Church  in  each  State  send 
deputies  to  the  convention,  consisting  of  clergy  and 
laity. 

III.  That  associated  congregations  in  two  or  more 
states  may  send  deputies  jointly. 

IV.  That  the  said  Church  shall  maintain  the 
doctrines  of  the  Gospel  as  now  held  by  the  Church 


174  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

of  England,  and  shall  adhere  to  the  Liturgy  of  the 
said  Church,  as  far  as  shall  be  consistent  with  the 
American  Revolution  and  the  constitutions  of  the 
respective  states. 

V.  That  in  every  state  where  there  shall  be  a 
bishop  duly  consecrated  and  settled,  he  shall  be 
considered  as  a  member  of  the  convention  ex  officio- 

VI.  That  the  clergy  and  laity  assembled  in  con- 
vention shall  deliberate  in  one  body,  but  shall  vote 
separately;  and  the  concurrence  of  both  shall  be 
necessary  to  give  validity  to  every  measure. 

VII.  That  the  first  meeting  of  the  convention 
shall  be  at  Philadelphia,  the  Tuesday  before  the 
feast  of  St.  Michael  next,  etc. 

Signed  by  order  of  the  convention, 

William  Smith,  D.D., 

President, 

The  following  committee  was  appointed  to  draw 
up  a  constitution  for  the  Church,  and  report  the  fol- 
lowing September,  1785  : — 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Maryland;  Mr.  John  De 
Hart,  New  Jersey ;  Rev.  Mr.  Parker,  Massachusetts 
and  Rhode  Island ;  Mr.  Robert  Clay,  Delaware ; 
Rev.  Dr.  White,  and  Mr.  Clarkson,  of  Pennsylvania ; 
Rev.  Mr.  Provost,  and  Mr.  Duane,  of  New  York. 

Subsequent  to  the  New  York  meeting  the  clergy 
and  laity  of  the  Church  in  Pennsylvania  met  at  the 
house  of  Dr.  White  on  the  7th  of  February,  1785, 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA. 


75 


when  it  was  resolved  to  send  to  every  clergyman 
and  congregation  in  the  state  an  account  of  the 
New  York  meeting,  and  recommended  that  clergy 
and  deputies  assemble  in  Philadelphia,  May  23, 
1785,  to  form  an  "  Act  of  Association  "  in  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania. 

This  document  begins  as  follows : — 

"  Whereas,  by  the  late  Revolution,  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 
is  become  independent,  etc.  ...  It  is  therefore, 
hereby  determined,  and  declared  by  the  clergy  who 
do  now,  or  who  hereafter  shall  sign  this  act,  and  by 
the  congregations  who  do  now,  or  who  hereafter 
shall  consent  to  this  act,  either  by  its  being  ratified 
by  their  respective  vestries,  or  by  its  being  signed 
by  their  deputies  duly  authorized,  that  the  said 
clergy  and  congregations  shall  be  called  and  known 
by  the  name  of  "  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,** 
in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

This  document  was  signed  by  five  clergymen  and 
eleven  laymen  on  the  24th  day  of  May,  in  Philadel- 
phia, I7&5.^ 

Dr.  White  sent  this  Act  of  Association  to  the  vari- 
ous clergy  throughout  the  states. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Seabury  arrived  at  his  home 
in  Connecticut  some  time  in  July,  1785,  and  very 
soon  after  invited  his  clergy  and  the  brethren  of  the 
1  Bishop  Perry's  Notes  and  Documents,  pp.  40-43. 


176  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

Southern  States  to  meet  with  him  in  Middletown, 
Conn.,  August  3,  1785.  The  reply  of  the  Phila- 
delphia clergy  was  an  invitation  to  those  of  Connec- 
ticut to  come  to  the  approaching  general  convention 
in  September.  Dr.  White's  pamphlet  was  seemingly 
unknown  to  Seabury  until  his  return,  and  having 
read  it  he  undertook  to  refute  Dr.  White's  presby- 
terian  polity  in  a  series  of  letters.  On  the  19th  of 
August  he  wrote:  "The  two  points  about  which 
I  am  most  concerned  are,  your  circumscribing 
the  Episcopal  power  within  such  narrow  bounds, 
depriving  the  bishop  of  all  government  in  the  Church 
except  as  a  presbyter,  and  your  subjecting  him  and 
yourselves  to  be  tried  before  a  convention  of  pres- 
byters and  laymen.  If  these  two  points  are  adhered 
to  ...  it  will  either  fall  into  parties  and  dissolve, 
or  sink  into  real  Presbyterianism."  On  the  15th  of 
August  the  Bishop  had  written  Dr.  Smith,  of  Chester, 
Md.,  who  was  seemingly  very  much  exercised  about 
the  Church's  property,  as  one  paragraph  reads :  I  can 
see  no  good  ground  of  apprehension  concerning  the 
titles  of  estates  or  emoluments  belonging  to  the 
Church  in  your  state.  Your  Church  is  still  the 
Church  of  England,  subsisting  under  a  different  civil 
government.  We  have  in  America  the  Church  of 
Holland,  of  Scotland,  of  Sweden,  of  Moravia,  and 
why  not  of  England  ?  Our  being  of  the  Church  of 
England  no  more  implies  dependence  on,  or  subjec- 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  lyy 

tion  to  England,  than  being  of  the  Church  of  Holland 
implies  subjection  to  Holland.  In  case  it  should 
appear  that  Bishop  Seabury  was  alone  in  his  con- 
tention with  Dr.  White,  we  quote  one  paragraph 
from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chandler,  of  Elizabethtown, 
New  Jersey,  September  20,  1785,  in  which  he  re- 
produces a  sentence  from  Hooker,  viz. : — "A  Bishop 
is  a  Minister  of  God,  unto  whom,  with  perma- 
nent continuance,  is  committed  a  power  of  chiefly 
government  over  presbyters  as  well  as  laymen,  a 
power  to  be  by  way  of  jurisdiction,  a  Pastor  even  to 
pastors  themselves."  Chandler  quotes  "  Sage  "  and 
other  authors  against  "  Baxter  "  and  finally  entreats 
Dr.  White  not  to  give  his  consent  to  rob  Episcopacy 
of  its  essential  rights.^ 

The  meeting  of  the  first  general  convention  was 
anticipated  with  much  interest  throughout  the  whole 
country,  and  was  composed  of  sixteen  clergy  and 
twenty-six  laymen  from  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  South 
Carolina,  as  follows : — 

New  York,  one  clergyman,  one  layman ;  New 
Jersey,  two  clergymen,  one  layman;  Pennsylvania, 
five  clergymen,  thirteen  laymen ;  Delaware,  one 
clergyman,  six  laymen;  Maryland,  five  clergymen, 
two  laymen ;  Virginia,  one  clergyman,  one  layman ; 
South  Carolina,  one  clergyman,  two  laymen. 
»  Bishop  Perry's  Notes  and  Documents,  pp.  69-87. 


178 


THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 


When  the  committee  reported  on  what  has  ever 
since  been  known  as  the  "■  Proposed  Book  "  (which 
was  never  ratified  as  the  service  book  of  the  Ameri- 
can Church),  it  was  entitled,  ''  Alterations  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of  the 
Sacraments,  and  other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the 
Church,  According  to  the  Use  of  the  Church  of 
England,  Proposed  and  Recommended  to  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America."  As  Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  White,  and  Dr. 
Wharton  were  responsible  for  the  Alterations  and 
Amendments  to  the  Prayer  Book,  a  voluminous  cor- 
respondence was  entered  into  concerning  the  same. 
On  the  28th  of  October  Dr.  Smith  wrote  Dr.  White 
concerning  the  word  "  Catholic  *'  in  the  words  "  Good 
Estate  of  the  Catholic  Church,"  which  had  been 
objected  to  in  a  Maryland  convention.  "  Although 
considered  intelligible  enough  to  many,  yet  it  is  not 
approved  of  by  many  others,  on  account  of  the  vul- 
gar application  of  it  to  one  particular  church." 
About  the  loth  of  February,  1786,  Dr.  White  sends 
Dr.  Smith  the  Common  Prayer  with  some  queries 
(Page  10,  Prot.  Ep.  Churches)  :  ''  Would  it  not  be 
better  in  ye  singular  number — at  least  it  should  be 
so  when  we  speak  of  ye  acts  of  ye  late  convention, 
in  order  to  harmonize  with  ye  phraseology  of  ye  con- 
stitution ? "  Dr.  Smith  replied  to  this  in  March, 
1786:  ''Protestant  Episcopal    Churches    should  be 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA.  179 

in  the  singular  number;  and  yet  if  all  our  New 
England  brethren  should  not  join  us,  they  may  say 
we  take  too  much  on  us  to  call  seven  or  eight  States 
the  whole  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  America. 
I  do  not  remember  the  connection  of  the  paragraph  ; 
but  if  it  be  churches,  in  the  plural,  some  such  idea 
must  have  been  in  my  head  ;  or  it  is  a  mistake  of  the 
pen.  Make  this  and  other  like  things  consistent  to 
your  best  judgment ;  for  I  know  you  will  not  Aitken- 
ize  (Aitken,  a  printer)  anything,  being  too  judicious 
to  put  a  patch  that  would  not  consort  with  the  gar- 
ment at  large." 

The  first  time  in  which  all  the  churches  are  spoken 
of  as  "  One  Body "  was  at  the  conference  held  at 
New  York,  October  6,  1784,  when  certain  "funda- 
mental principles"  were  adopted  as  a  basis  for  a  con- 
stitution, and  the  second  time  was  at  Philadelphia, 
May  24,  1785,  when  the  Pennsylvania  delegates  rati- 
fied these  previous  recommendations. 

The  name  "  Protestant "  was  made  familiar  to 
Wilmer,  Smith,  and  others  by  colloquial  usage  in 
Maryland  particularly,  where  Roman  Catholics  were 
struggling  for  toleration  and  recognition.  The  terms 
Protestant  and  Catholic  were  used  generally  to  ex- 
press the  zenith  and  nadir  of  ecclesiastical  polities. 
The  title  ''  Roman  Catholic  "  was  ordinarily  applied 
to  that  section  of  the  church  in  Maryland  that  claimed 
the   Italian  headship  before  the  "Bill  of  Rights" 


l8o  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT. 

granted  toleration,  just  as  every  deed,  will,  and  con- 
tract have  borne  it  ever  since.  There  is  a  record  of 
Protestants,  *'The  Servants  of  Cornwallis,'*  assem- 
bling for  mutual  edification  as  early  as  1638,  A.  D. 
In  1642  we  find  a  small  colony  disturbed  by  an 
attempt  to  deprive  certain  Protestant  Catholics  of 
the  use  of  their  chapel,  and  to  despoil  them  of  the 
books  of  the  same.  Bozman  thinks  this  term  can 
only  mean  the  members  of  the  Church  of  England. 
Henry  Moore,  the  Jesuit,  writing  to  Rome  in  1642, 
speaks  of  English  churchmen  as  heretics.  This  was 
some  eight  or  ten  years  after  the  first  Roman  Cath- 
olic emigrants  arrived  in  the  chartered  colony. 
When  the  civil  war  broke  out  in  England  anti-Cath- 
olic measures  were  enacted  by  the  Legislature  of 
Maryland,  but  the  restoration  of  1660  brought  them 
a  more  liberal  policy.  Alsop  (J esuit),  writing  in  i (^6, 
refers  to  certain  heretics  of  Maryland  by  calling  them 
"  Protestant  Episcopal,"  which  was  equivalent  to 
*'  Protestant  Catholic,"  as  used  in  the  colony  in 
1642.  Maryland  had  become  the  refuge  of  Jesuits, 
but  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  State  had  always 
borne  a  threatening  aspect  to  the  minds  of  all  Prot- 
estants, and  it  was  a  simple  matter  to  raise  a  war-cry 
against  them  at  any  time.  When  William  of  Orange 
was  about  to  invade  England,  the  people  of  Mary- 
land feared  that  the  State  would  be  placed  in  antag- 
onism to  the  movement  by  Lord  Baltimore,  who  was 


AD  OPTED  IN  AMERICA.  \  8 1 

a  Romanist,  on  account  of  the  existing  enmity  be- 
tween France  and  England.  A  society  was  there- 
fore formed  in  Maryland  for  "  The  Defense  of  the 
Protestant  Religion  and  the  Asserting  of  the  Right 
of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary  to  the  Province  of 
Maryland  and  all  the  English  Dominions."  Although 
Lord  Baltimore  had  been  made  proprietary  governor, 
he  never  resided  in,  or  even  visited,  Maryland.  In 
1684  Lord  Baltimore  was  ordered  to  place  all  offices 
in  the  hands  of  Protestants  in  Maryland.  The  adop- 
tion of  the  title  "  Protestant  Episcopal  "  in  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania  was  clearly  an  usurpation  of  the 
first  principles  of  right,  as  the  Moravians,  who  at 
that  time  occupied  Nazareth  and  Bethlehem  were 
known  in  law  as  "Protestant  Episcopal"  as  an 
act  of  Parliament  passed  on  the  12th  day  of  May, 
in  the  twenty-first  year  of  the  reign  of  George 
IL,  1747,  enacted  .  .  .  "And,  whereas,  the  said  con- 
gregations are  an  ancient  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  which  has  been  countenanced  and  relieved 
by  the  kings  of  England,  your  Majesty's  prede- 
cessors. .  .  .  Every  person  being  a  member  of 
the  said  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  known  by  the 
name  of  Unites  Fratrum,  or  United  Brethren," 
etc.,  etc.  ^  The  Moravian  Church,  which  had  a  center 
of  worship  at  Salem,  North  Carolina,  was  generally 
known  as  a  church  having  bishops,  and  were  called 

»  Phila.  Hist.  Soc,  E.  6135. 


1 82  TBE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

by  Johnson,  of  Stratford,  and  Caner,  of  Boston, 
Protestant  Episcopalians,  about  1764.  The  Rev. 
James  Jones  Wilmer,  the  proposer  of  our  church's 
title,  was  brought  up  as  a  churchman,  and  ordained 
in  1773.  His  name  disappears  from  church  records 
in  1784,  but  it  occurs  a  number  of  times  in  docu- 
ments and  letters  at  present  in  possession  of  the 
State  of  Maryland.  On  the  17th  day  of  March, 
1777,  ^^  applied  to  the  General  Assembly  for  per- 
mission to  act  as  chaplain  to  the  Annapolis  first 
regiment  of  foot.  On  the  31st  of  July,  1778,  he 
applied  to  the  Hon.  Council  for  a  passport  for  him- 
self and  family  to  Europe.  The  pass,  "  by  the 
opportunity  of  a  British  flag  of  truce,"  is  dated 
Elizabethtown,  March  5,  1779.  On  the  26th  of 
July,  1779,  Wilmer  accused  William  Sluber,  of  Ches- 
terton, of  high  treason.  Sluber  appeared  at  Annap- 
olis and  cleared  himself.  On  the  21st  of  May,  1781, 
he  wrote  to  Governor  Lee  apologizing  for  his 
ignorance  in  the  forms  of  court  business,  and  finally 
assures  him  that  he  is  not  merely  politically,  but 
personally  a  friend  of  his  Excellency's  person  and 
government.  June  14,  1784,  he  instructs  the  dele- 
gates from  St.  George's  and  St.  John's,  Harford 
County,  to  use  their  endeavors  to  maintain  the  purity 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  consistent  with  the  har- 
mony of  the  state,  as  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  has  an  equal  right  with  other  denominations. 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA,  183 

to  retain  her  form  and  ceremonies.^  The  next  time 
we  hear  of  James  Jones  VViimer  he  had  become  a 
Swedenborgian,  and,  according  to  his  own  record, 
preached  the  first  sermon  in  the  court-house  of 
Baltimore,  the  first  Sunday  in  April,  1792.  Sweden- 
borg  died  in  1772,  and  Wilmer,  having  secured 
"  memorable  relations  of  Baron  Swedenborg,"  was 
led  to  renounce  his  church,  probably  for  reasons  of 
united  Christendom,  as  given  in  his  notes  appended 
to  the  sermon  :  **  On  the  clearest  evidence  of  Scrip- 
ture, I  am  entirely  satisfied  of  the  authenticity  of 
the  heavenly  doctrine  of  the  New  Jerusalem  Church, 
and  that  they  are  of  the  last  (highest)  importance  to 
every  seeking  soul  that  pants  after  a  glorious  immor- 
tality." It  is  singular  that  in  the  small  society  exist- 
ing in  this  place,  there  are  members  from  almost 
every  denomination.  This  shows  how  it  meets  the 
hearts  of  believers  and  is  wisely  calculated  to  establish 
a  universal  church."  ^  Latitudinarian  and  Unitarian 
principles  had  been  long  nurtured  in  Maryland,  as  in 
other  sections  further  north.  Hoadley,  Bishop  of 
Bangor,  who  had  denied  the  existence  of  any  visible 
church,  and  had  scoffed  at  the  maintenance  of  ortho- 
dox tests,  and  the  claims  of  church  government,  as 
early  as  171 7,  was  the  accepted  authority  in  matters 
ecclesiastical.     The   Church   of   England   that   was 

*  See  Archives  of  the  State  deposited  at  present  in  Hist.  Society, 
Baltimore,  Md. 

•  Sermon— Ridgway  Branch  Phila.  Lib.,  Al.  54231-a 


1 84  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

first  planted  in  these  American  colonies,  was  part  of 
the  true  vine,  as  we  profess  in  our  creeds,  the  one 
Holy,  Catholic,  and  Apostolic  Church,  and,  on  their 
becoming  free  and  independent  of  the  British  Crown, 
the  church  which  had  taken  the  most  interest  and 
active  part  in  that  separation,  should  have  logically 
and  legally  preserved  her  rightful  title,  '*  The  Amer- 
ican Church."  This  can  in  no  sense  be  called  pre- 
sumption, but  should  be  most  carefully  considered 
by  those  who  talk  most  of  unity.  If  possession  is 
nine-tenths  in  law,  certainly  the  Episcopal  Church  of 
these  United  States  has  the  prior  claim.  The  conti- 
nent of  North  America  was  discovered  by  Sir  John 
Cabot,  on  the  24th  of  June,  1497 — St.  John  Baptist 
Day.  On  this  discovery  England  based  her  claims 
to  possession.  From  the  23d  day  of  June,  1579,  the 
Rev.  Francis  Fletcher,  a  priest  of  the  Church  of 
England,  said  morning  and  evening  prayers,  for  six 
weeks,  for  the  sailors  and  savages  on  the  shore  of 
Drake's  Bay,  California.  In  the  year  1606,  James  I. 
of  England  created  two  charter  companies,  to  whom 
he  gave  the  sea-coast  from  the  most  eastern  point  of 
Maine  to  Wilmington,  South  Carolina,  extending 
westward  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  On  the  14th  day  of 
May,  1607,  the  Rev.  Robert  Hunt,  who  accompanied 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  to  the  New  World,  conducted 
the  first  service  from  the  Anglican  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  at  Jamestown,  Virginia,  in  the  presence  of 


AD  OPTED  IN  AMERICA,  1 8  5 

105  souls.  It  was  here  the  first  church  was  built, 
and  a  second  followed  it  by  command  of  Lord  Dela- 
ware, in  1 610. 

The  first  Dutch  settlements  on  the  Hudson  were  in 
1 61 4.  The  New  England  colony  of  Anabaptists  and 
Independents,  at  Plymouth,  was  in  1620.  The 
Swedes  settled  Western  Pennsylvania,  and  Wilming- 
ton, Del.,  1623-1633.  The  first  Roman  Catholic 
bishop  consecration  for  the  American  Colonies,  took 
place  in  the  chapel  of  Lulworth  Castle,  by  the 
Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Wamsley,  Bishop  of  Rama 
(titular  bishop),  Senior  Vicar  Apostolic  in  England, 
on  Sunday,  the  15th  day  of  August,  1790.  In  the 
course  of  the  ordination  sermon,  the  preacher  said  that 
Andrew  White,  an  EngHsh  Jesuit,  accompanied  the 
first  colonists  to  Maryland,  in  1632,  and  in  1720 
R.  F.  Grayton,  and  others,  introduced  Roman 
Catholicism  into  Pennsylvania.  Dr.  John  Carroll 
was  the  first  Father  and  Bishop  in  the  new  church  in 
America,  and  we  notice  that  he  was  consecrated  by 
one  bishop,  which  was  contrary  to  primitive  practise 
and  canons  of  Nicaea.^ 

Somerset  County,  Maryland,  the  cradle  of  Ameri- 
can Presbyterianism,  was  first  settled  by  the  followers 
of  Calvin,  about  1670.  A  few,  however,  may  have 
made  their  way  into  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  in 

*  Pamphlet,  printed  by  J.  P.  Coghlan,  London,  1790,  in  the  Bishop 
Whittingham  Library,  Baltimore,  Md. 


1 86  THE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

advance  of  this  movement.  The  Quakers,  under 
Penn,  settled  in  Pennsylvania  in  1682,  and  the  first 
Moravian  missionaries  could  not  have  started  for  the 
American  Colonies  before  1735  A.  D.  The  history 
of  the  name  "  Protestant  Episcopal "  should  be  easily 
disposed  of.  The  guiding  hand  in  the  composition 
of  the  "  Proposed  Book "  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith 
of  Maryland,  who  was  requested  to  read  the  service 
for  the  first  time  on  Friday,  October  7,  1785.  Two 
days  previous  to  this  a  committee  of  clerical  and  lay 
deputies,  in  the  name  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  America,  drew  up  an  address  directed  to 
the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, requesting  them  to  confer  the  Episcopal  char- 
acter on  such  persons  as  they  might  recommend. 
The  bishops  in  their  reply  use  the  designated  title, 
and  express  their  deepest  solicitude  and  sincere  af- 
fection for  the  American  Church,  "■  but,"  they  said, 
'*  we  cannot  but  be  extremely  cautious,  lest  we 
should  be  the  instruments  of  establishing  an  ecclesi- 
astical system,  which  will  be  called  a  branch  of  the 
Church  of  England,  but  afterwards  may  possibly  ap- 
pear to  have  departed  from  it  essentially,  either  in 
doctrine  or  in  discipline."  This  reply  was  read  to 
the  convention  held  in  Philadelphia  on  Tuesday, 
June  20,  1786.  On  the  following  Friday  the  de- 
bate on  the  constitution  was  renewed  and  continued. 
Sec.  IX.  Instead  of  the  words  **  to  be  the  desire," 


ADOPTED  IN  AMERICA,  187 

insert — to  be  the  general  desire.  After  the  words 
*'  Therefore  the,"  delete  the  whole  subsequent  part  of 
the  section,  and  in  place  thereof  insert  as  follows : 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  Administration  of 
Sacraments,  and  other  rites  and  ceremonies,  as 
revised  and  proposed  to  the  use  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  at  a  convention  of  the  said 
Church,  in  the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
South  Carolina,  may  be  used  by  this  Church,  in  such 
of  the  states  as  have  adopted,  or  may  adopt,  the 
same  in  their  particular  conventions,  till  further  pro- 
vision is  made  in  this  case,  by  the  first  general  con- 
vention which  shall  assemble  with  sufificient  power 
to  ratify  a  Book  of  Common  Prayer  for  the  Church 
in  these  States.  The  fourteen  clergy  and  twelve  lay- 
men assembled  in  Philadelphia  June  20,  1786,  who 
represented  seven  States,  did  not  consider  the  pre- 
vious assembly  of  September,  1785,  as  a  general 
convention,  according  to  sec.  ix.  of  the  constitu- 
tion.^ 

The  General  Convention  met  at  Wilmington, 
Delaware,  October  10,  1786,  at  which  there  were 
present,  clergy  and  laymen,  from  six  of  the  states  as 
follows  ;  New  York,  one  clergyman,  two  laymen ; 
New  Jersey,  two  clergymen,  three  laymen  ;  Penn- 
sylvania, three  clergymen,  three  laymen ;  Delaware, 
'Journal  of  the  June  Convention,  Phila.  Hist.  Soc,  E.  339. 


I88  "^HE  WORD  PROTESTANT, 

two  clergymen,  two  laymen ;  South  Carolina,  three 
clergyman,  one  layman. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  of  Maryland  was  present,  but 
he  was  disfranchised  on  the  ground  of  inconsistency 
with  the  fundamental  articles,  as  a  state  could  not 
be  represented  by  a  clerical  deputy  only.  It  was 
this  convention  at  Wilmington  that  restored  the 
Creeds  in  their  integrity  to  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  the  "  Proposed  Book  "  which  had  been 
submitted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  Wharton,  and 
Dr.  White  was  permanently  laid  aside,  and  we  main- 
tain that  the  title  which  accompanied  that  work 
should  have  disappeared  with  it.  The  English  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  was  again  taken  up  in  1789,  and 
was  made  the  basis  of  all  future  revision. 


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